Never Given A Choice
by Lord-Strath
Summary: A dark themed story from the perspective of Tayuya as she tries to survive her defeat during the retrieval mission to capture Uchiha Sasuke. The question is will fate allow her a good life. Rated M for language and dark themes. "Chapter 12 out now, no longer Hiatus"
1. The Blood That Marks Your Shame

**_Warning contains refferences and descriptions of rape, murder, dying and torture. Also contains graphic descriptions of injury and mutalation._**

Twin trails of crimson regret, the very essence of life drips and runs down the battered and warn body of a heavily injured kunoichi as it forms a path like a marker that constantly followers her no matter how far she moves or how much she tries to stop the blood from escaping her. Moving through pain on sheer force of will the young Sound kunoichi passed tree by irritating tree as she tried to remember the route's her master Orochimaru etched into her mind in case she was ever captured in Konoha's bounders and escaped however it didn't help that they the tree's and everything else was spinning in a disorienting mess due to her possible concussion and serious blood loss. Aside from the obvious visual problems she also had the distinguished honor of feeling a new type of pain all together as she had to endure both the agonizing pain of a portion of her body's nerves dying in the lower part of her body and the numbness that followed those nerves deaths and as anyone could imagine it felt like a living hell.

Each and every step became more painful and harder to bare then the last but stopping to rest would surly kill her now and she knew it, because now she had came to the realization that if she let the adrenalin in her stop flowing she would collapse and drift into an unconsciousness she would never wake from. With her left leg now being the better leg, the young girl had to press all her weight on it, which in itself, caused nothing but pain and unevenness but her right leg was far more damaged as part of her legs bone was horrifically popping out of her kneecap, something she hadn't even taken the time to further inspect since she dragged herself out from underneath the chopped logs of timber with once made up Konoha's illustrious forest and tree line.

The sun which was once high in the sky that morning had now sank from above as night approached and this little fact hadn't gone unnoticed by the young red haired kunoichi as she finally and unwillingly gave into her injuries and slumped against a nearby tree and tried her best to keep her dark brown eyes open as human and inhumanly capable to try and savor what bitter moments of life she had left to reminisce over her tragic existence since being abandoned and left to fend for herself as a small child in the land of waves to when she had finally found a place to belong to in Sound after being taken in by the snake Sannin Orochimaru who would further bless her with her current Station as the North Gate of the Sound Four and received the curse seal which marked her as his devoted servant but only after did she realize that her new found power wasn't hers but her masters to use and the same went for her life for if she spoke against him or objected to his whim she would endure a hell worst then imagination before she would even bat a punch...yes the life of Tayuya sucked as she well knew and soon would be ending because of the intervening of the Suna whore who so quickly took all she had become away from her in just one single attack...truly life wasn't fair for her and she knew this so well.

Tayuya was mere moments from slumping into oblivion itself had not the brush of the bushes and the breaking of twigs nearby triggered her adept ninja homed senses and forced her heart to rapidly pump precious blood through those tired veins once more as she scanned the area like a rabid animal as to the disturbance that was so close to her. In her attempt to find the cause a few possible ideas ran through her head, the hope of salvation of her teammates coming to her aid which was more of a insult to her as they would most likely belittle her for having her ass handed to her, the fear of Konoha ninja finding her which would either lead to a quick execution or a prolonged suffering in a cell which would be worst then the last thought of a hungry animal following her blood trail to finish off the wounded prey. In all her pain and disillusions it was a mixture of all three in a sense.

From a nearby bush both the male ninja and female kunoichi responsible for her current injuries and situation immerged and stared at her both with weapons in hand. The male with a kunai which he lazily readied to chest length after confirming Tayuya's presence and the female who swung her fan off her back clearing the bush in front of them clean off the ground.

Tayuya actually considered that she had already died and his was just a mere scenario that would replay itself over and over again in hell as punishment for her crimes on earth but tried to dissuade that thought given the immensely stupid looking the face the Nara was giving her.

"Can't believe she actually made it this long with those injuries, you really are a stubborn woman aren't you?" the newly elected Chuunin asked aloud earning him both the ire of Tayuya and his female companion Temari.

"The whelp doesn't look like she is gonna last much longer if you ask me; it was a waste to follow her here like I said!" the blond headed woman shouted heatedly to her companion who only removed the earwax from his right ear which fazed her only to provoking a huff of frustration from the wind master.

Despite her obvious grave injuries Tayuya did her best to push herself up the side of the tree into a defensive standing position although it didn't do her much good since she needed to immediately wrap her left arm around the gash which was inflicted on her when part of a tree branch had impaled threw her right side as the tree crushed and pinned her firmly under its immense weight, her right hand had to grip her right knee to not only keep the bone in place but also keep her balance from both falling over and in case the weight of standing pushed the bone all the way out of her leg.

Seeing her defensive display the pony tailed Chuunin groaned heavily that the girl he had just fought hours ago still wanted to fight given her immense injuries...the whole idea was troublesome to say the least.

"Don't get so comfortable Nara she is still a threat so long as she is alive," the blond Suna woman snapped focusing his attention back to the matter at hand.

No matter how much the red head tried to shout and curse both of them she was having enough trouble properly breathing never mind yelling obscenities at the top of her lungs. She simply lacked the luxury to insult either of them at the moment in her current condition even if it only was to agitate her executioners so that they'd put her out of her misery quickly instead of taking their time.

Despite their obvious advantage over their wounded adversary neither nin made a move. Each of the three gauged the situation carefully because after all each nin in their own respect were masters of tacticians and one careless move could bring about horrible results so all three waited for someone to make a move but Tayuya didn't have the luxury of waiting as her body reminded her that death was inevitably close no matter what happened. Once the quick shot of pain ran its effective course through her Tayuya despite her best efforts fell back against the tree and slumped into a beaten and bloody mess as she eyed both nin to finish her off with a cold emotionless stare as she accepted her fate.

Seeing this the Sand kunoichi smirked and readied her fan to deliver the killing blow to at least give her opponent the dignity of being killed in battle by a warrior admirably instead of succumbing to her wounds like a wounded animal caught in a trap.

As the fan was raised high above the Sand kunoichi's head ready to end the Sound girls life her Leaf companion stretched his arm in front of Temari to stop her which caused her to give him a weird look back as to why, which his only response was scratching the back of his head with his other hand and a "Tsk" sound uttered from his mouth as he forced the effort to give Temari a reasonable reply.

"Hey I am not too keen on the idea of needlessly taking lives unless there's no other possible way okay?" He waited for a reply from the Sand kunoichi but she only frowned and lowered her massive weapon disapprovingly at the soft ways of the leaf on how they treat their enemy's so mercifully.

"Which is?" Her frustration overflowing in her tone.

In response to Temari's question Shikamaru placed his hands into a few of his vest pockets and took out his medical supplies which only got a deep huff of dissatisfaction from his Suna ally and a shocked and confused look from Tayuya who had no choice but to sit and endure their constant bickering which drove her even more furious at the current situation since she was being over looked as a threat which as much as she hated to admit it she wasn't at the moment.

Shikamaru carefully tossed the supplies to the injured red head making sure to keep his distance should she retaliate. Tayuya only stared at them with a bewildered expression then slowly looked up at him to see if he looked like he was about to kick them away from her but saw no such intention on his uninterested face.

The beaten girl tried to move to retrieve them but only budged momentarily from her seat against the tree and fell back against it hard causing pain to run its course again causing visual cringing on her face which Shikamaru only shook his head disapprovingly at her and cautiously knelt down to her and took the supply's in hand after looking to Temari to signal her to watch his back as he tried to apply first aid personally, an act she only nodded in acceptance despite her obvious physical disapproval on the matter.

Tayuya pulled back from him like a wide eyed wild animal and pressed herself as much as she could to move away from his reaching hand and the needle he readied in hand and if Shikamaru didn't know better from his previous battle with her he could of sworn he saw fear in her eyes but he eventually took hold of her arm which she furiously tried to pull from him but only caused spasms of pain to run all over her body and it was in this opening he took the opportunity to inject a medical needle into her shaking arm as much as he could before she could notice the cold metal sting puncture her. Once she did however she quickly snapped her head to meet his and watched as the vile pushed the green liquid into her veins which as far as she was concerned marked her for death of the most inhumane kind, to be put to sleep to painlessly die in slumber...humane yet so inhumane at the same time.

"…You… son... o-of a... bitch!" was all she could muster in a defeated low tone.

Her brown eyes only stared into his dark eyes as she waited for the drugs to take effect, her face was contorted between anger and solemn acceptance that this was how she was going to die but she didn't pass out and to her surprise the pain in her body subsided a little which made her eye him intently as to what it was.

"What? How troublesome... its morphine for the pain." He answered rather annoyed at the obvious explanation.

"For Kami's sake Nara do you really intend to aid an enemy who would have killed you had I not arrived?!" Shouted the blond woman as she slammed her fan into the ground making a large dent into the earth.

"Yeah I guess so, we did take the time to follow her to see if she'd lead us to Sasuke so we could at least do something for her since she isn't gonna make it." Nara shrugged back at her as he prepared to do something about the bleeding coming out of the gash that was too close to the girl's jugular vein.

"You know what these pills are right?" Shaking a bottle of pills in front of her.

"…Plasma... pills... fucker..." she groaned still in moderate pain as she tried to examine the spinning bottle.

Tayuya acknowledged what they were as she remembered that Kabuto often used them to make up for blood loss as the pills recreate more blood in the body of the one who takes them and seeing how blood loss was her biggest medical problem at the moment she had no choice but to allow her enemy to administer it to her but once it was swallowed she quickly spat her old blood which had been pooling inside her mouth since the Suna bitches attack, it was obvious to all she was suffering internal bleeding that would also pose a serious threat to her life. However where she chooses to spit the blood was in her doctor's face purposely missing his eyes which if it had hit there would have signaled the Suna woman to finish her off while Shikamaru was blinded. After Nara wiped the blood off and was about to scold her as to what a pain in the ass she was the sound kunoichi had began convulsing on the sudden rush of new blood which flowed from in between her teeth and seeped out of not just the corners of her mouth but now flowed freely out of her whole mouth as well as the other deep wounds such as her gash in the stomach, broken leg and gash along her neck, the sudden burst of blood and her obvious pain and horror on her face shocked and even worried Shikamaru who wasn't exactly skilled in the healing arts outside of the basics of first aid so healing internal damage was beyond his limited capability when it came to the healing.

"Damn it Nara if you don't do anything all this crap will have been a waste, move over and use your shadow possession jutsu to restrain her so I can heal for now!"・

Quick to comply the young Chuunin stepped aside and formed the hand signs to activate his signature jutsu the shadow possession which he quickly used to restrain the Sound nin from pulling anything as well as to keep her from pushing her body too far. No sooner was she secured against her will she was then healed by what limited healing ability's the Suna woman knew since it was now a mandatory practice for any squad to have at least one nin dedicated to healing and even though Suna didn't officially adopt Konoha's policy's it did however take note of it and made the effort to teach some healing ability's while not dedicating a single squad member to heal which would reduce their destructive ability's since offense was the best defense to them. It took over several grueling minutes of nonstop chakra channeling but Temari was able to for the moment heal the internal wounds to the point where her opponent wasn't in any direct danger of them at the moment, an act which was rewarded by the Sound kunoichi bitterly spitting blood up at her which Temari allowed to hit her purposely.

"That's for... the sneak attack... bitch!" taunted the wounded girl as hate filled as she could.

"That's all? Hell then I'd love to see what you got for me for demolishing you so badly," Temari smirked seeing that her statement only infuriated the Sound girl more to the point she coughed up blood and yelled in pain quickly as she had opened her neck wound wider.

"Reckless brat..." spurned the Suna kunoichi as she turned and walked away to cover Shikamaru as he would be the one taking over now to tend to her wounds.

After he had returned to applying medicines and bandages, even to go so far as to snap her bone back into place in her knee, a gruesome feat which almost went unnoticed by the nearly unfazed Sound nin who only spent her time looking ahead to when she would be a prisoner worthy neither of pity or mercy nor even the dignity of being treated like a human being, who would be forced to bare through all of the Leafs tortures and interrogation methods imaginable. Yes she had been told the tales of Ibiki's special treatments and techniques to break even the strongest of will in the firmest of ninja and while her lord and master did teach her nearly ever resistance method he knew Tayuya already knew that for her it would be only a matter of months to years at best before her will would carry her before she became a cracked egg shivering in the corner of some underground god forsaken hellhole cell where she will either to be forgotten by her comrades or left to rot by them or if they are desperate enough they will have her secretly killed...it wouldn't take much to infiltrate a heavily guarded prison cell and poison an overlooked prisoner, hell it would look at it as an internal assassination by a guard who had a grudge against the Sound...no one would miss her on either side.

Deep down the young kunoichi already knew that if Konoha was truly insistent on getting any information from her that they would because the methods already existed as she had witnessed firsthand down in the bowels of Sounds tunnels and Orochimaru's privet rooms lined with organs and mutilated bodies of his 'subjects' and enemies as well as hapless villagers though they never showed any value other than being untalented flesh bags as Orochimaru put it. She had witnessed what real torture was both mentally and physically simply because he had shown her as well as the rest of her team just what can be done to the most impenetrable of people but for her being a kunoichi she was showed things that still gave her nightmares till this very day. One such nightmare was when Orochimaru called her down to his entertainment chamber to show her just how vulnerable she was by taking the closest person Tayuya had known in Sound during her 'academy' days, the first and only person that Tayuya had ever considered to be a friend was bound and beaten to a wall by fellow nin's, when Tayuya had protested to her fellow kunoichi's treatment she herself would be struck by her master for being weak and told that this was for her own sake that if her fellow ninja allies were captured then witnessing this would harden her to resist giving in and helping them. Of course her masters teachings would not end once Tayuya accepted this fact because as soon as she had told him that she understood her savior took the lesson to the next level by ordering his minions to display the more...advanced ways of breaking someone...she had to watch the closest thing she had ever known to be a friend raped and once that girls iron will was left a quivering mess on the floor she was instantly picked up and had her throat sliced open and her blood poured on her interrogator then died and was left in the center of the copper colored torture room.

"You see Tayuya my dear? These are but a few of the ways an enemy can get what they want out of you, I only ask that you understand the meaning of her death today for you may be in the same position one day but do not fear my power will always protect you my dear as I have promised," hissed the snake Sannin as he caressed his pale white hand lovingly across her cheeks as she shook at looked down at a possible outcome for her, she vowed never to let that happen.

"Your greatest asset is your pride Tayuya-chan, it reflects in everything you do and will keep you strong even under the most intense circumstances but as you have bared witness there are ways to stripe someone of their pride completely... let this be a lesson." The Sannin then took hold of her by her shoulder and walked her out of the musky foul smelling room to signify an end to today's tutelage.

"Hey... should she be as zoned out as she is? I didn't overdose the morphine did I?" Nara asked with somewhat genuine concern as he just popped bone back into flesh without much more than an audible grunt.

"How the hell should I know?! I stopped caring what you were doing once you decided to help the whelp," Temari retorted letting him know just how irritated with him and his bleeding heart she was.

"...You're going to regret this you fucking rat bastard... you know that right?"

"Yeah I know, and that's why I'm doing this now because later it'd be too much of a troublesome act."

Her dark brown eyes only glared at him for him pitying her and for lack of a better word it disgusted her beyond words to be treated as she is by any enemy but him...she almost killed him and he knew she would have enjoyed his last moments as she slowly dug his own kunai into his vest and grinned it into his chest and between his ribs till she was able to personally stop his chicken shit heart from beating any longer...yet that same person was healing her and keeping her from dying, pure ludicrously.

Light faded in the canopy allowing only scarce rays of the golden suns illumination to pierce down to the forest floor where the three presided, it had been over forty minutes of preparation but the young kunoichi's life was out of danger of failing her for the moment and she had the thanks of both her opponents for that. To the new Chuunin for sparing her life and caring for her grave wounds and the Suna broad for both allowing the Leaf Chuunin to spare her as well as keep her awake by repeatedly pressing the blunt end of her fan dead center into her left shoulder every time the Sound kunoichi was about to slip away into unconsciousness and risk never waking up again due to her concussion, an act Tayuya only gritted her teeth bitterly and snarled at the odd four pony tailed woman due to the apparent fact the Suna woman made no attempt to hide the fact she enjoyed toying and injuring her prey past the point of defeat.

"That's the best we can do here, let's get going," Nara said aloud as he stood up and left the med kit on the forest floor next to the heavily bandaged kunoichi who waited impatiently for her captives to take custody of her.

"Aren't you the one taking her back to your village Nara?" Temari interjected.

"We're not taking her captive," his reply sounding of dull annoyance.

Both females stared dumbfounded at the statement due to the obvious recklessness it presented.

"Your joking right Nara?" the Suna woman asked with a slight laugh in her voice. "You can't be serious about allowing an enemy to live not to mention all the time we just spent keeping her alive?" again ending her sentence with a mock laugh since the whole idea was absurd.

"Yeah that's right, it'd be too troublesome to carry her back to the village during this mission never mind all the annoying paper work we would have to go through and well yeah taking her back would be a complete drag," letting out a sigh at the mere thought of the trouble he would be forced to go through by taking her back.

"No Nara!" she pronounced firmly while containing her anger. "We are not going to let her go because you do not feel like it, I only agreed to letting her live this long because Suna is your ally now and I am aiding your mission and you choose to spare her life for capture but I refuse to allow you to make such a stupid mistake as to allow this enemy to go back to her base so she can have revenge against us!" Temari physically shook with heated anger as all she received from her teammate was a blank bored stare.

"The bitch is right you know..." Tayuya's dark brown eyes narrowed on Shikamaru as best she could focus given the weakness her body felt. "... You let me live and I will kill you in your sleep one night,"adding a few hoarse chuckles at the thought as old blood made its way out of her mouth.

"No you would wake me up before you killed me so I would know it was you," replied the young genius with a mock tone.

"..Yeah I would fucker," Tayuya's head dropped a little as she weakly smiled at the thought of killing him.

"She admits it herself, what further proof do you need that letting her go is a horrible mistake?!" Temari did her best to remain on guard against the wounded redhead less not to over look her and fall into a genjutsu trap.

"I have my own reasons for letting that enemy live so let's leave it at that huh? It'd be a real drag to try and explain it while you are pissed right now." Forcing a weak smile at her obvious anger.

"Give me one good one Nara!" Slamming her fan in front of the wounded kunoichi another time, snapping her out of her slumped position against the tree.

"…Troublesome," he sighed before continuing. "Because she is strong I guess."

"All the more reason to kill her then Nara, you would be doing both our villages a favor as well as any other people she might attack," the Suna woman's reasoning being obviously solid.

Amidst their constant bickering the young Sound kunoichi struggled to focus on them with her eyes and ears as much as she could but their voices were sounding more and more muffed and distorted as her vision began to fade against her will, her wounds may have been healed to keep her off deaths door for the moment but her body was increasingly unresponsive as it felt more and more heavy.

"F-fuck… why now… t-that fucking mark… why the fuck now?! …Draining… every… thing… I… have…" Her mind went blank as both nin in front of her were replaced by darkness what swirled and dispersed leaving her in a near eternal blackness from which she feared she would never wake to escape from.

* * *

**_Its been a long time coming but this has been the result of months of stray thoughts and alot of negitive thought processes. This story is completly unrelated to my previous one and was created as a way to put all those excess negitive thoughts i wished i could have used for Cursed Death since that was originally intended to be a story of Revenge and hatered but i changed it into a sitcomish spin off via fan request and NO i am not going to abandon either of these fics. To those readers who came here thinking this was related to Cursed Death i sau nay BUT i will have the next chap out as soon as possible as well as a proper explaination as to why the delay. _**

**_This is Strath signing out for now, please review and give constructive critisism. I also would like to thanks Frace fro the Beta editing he did for this story _**


	2. The Eyes That Show Your Fear

**_AC: Warning this chapter contains graphic descriptions of child molestation. Also i do not own Naruto.  
As per pairing questions I choose to not disclose pairing(s) this early in the story._**

Pure darkness.

Primal, linked to humans mind and soul. Few can say they have experienced a complete darkness devoid of any sort of light yet here Tayuya was amidst a never ending sea of total pitch black as she drifted as if sinking into the bottomless abyss.

"_Am I...dead?" _Her mind had become the only sound she could make as her mouth didn't make a sound, all she could do was look outwards into the abyss as she drifted headfirst into the nothingness.

"_Fuck...I'm dead." _All she could do was move her brown eyes down to where she was falling for the rest of her body felt numb and lifeless.

In the midst of all the darkness figures clearly came into view as if illuminated of their own free will. One of the figures was a tall well built man possibly in his mid thirty's with sharp brown eyes and a rugged dark brown hair style. He had oddly pinkish cheeks and noes and wore the painfully obvious cloths of a poor nobody.

"_Dad...what the fuck is your drunk ass doing here?" _

She could only watch with frigged eyes as the image came clearly into view of a small hobbled shack by a waterfront appeared into view as if the blackness creeped off like mist. A womans body came into focus, slender, fair skinned and with long red hair flowing off her shoulders down her back. Her cloths were much better then the mans who seemed as if he was shouting with anger in his face.

"_Mom...this is...the day you left isn't it." _A somber look was plastered on the girls near emotionless face as she remembered what happened that faithful day.

A small child appeared who was being carried by two guards behind the man who Tayuya had identified to be her father. The child couldn't have been no more then a year old. It took the redhead a few moments but the identity became crystal clear.

"_Thats me...the day that worthless drunk had mom expelled from Wave, when that ballless fucker kept me and treated me like shit and you' you fucking bitch left me!" _Yes that day unfolded in the young girls mind with perfect clarity as the town guard kept her from leaving with her mother who was threatened by the edge of blades to leave both the town and her only daughter behind. But Tayuya knew she wasn't kept in her fathers keep out of love no, he no longer viewed her as the bundle of joy he once did when she was born. Now to him she was just free labor and just another way to hurt his wife for choosing not to stay with him any longer. Though at the time the small child had no real awareness of what was going on the memory still remained in the child's mind which was the only reason why Tayuya could understand what it meant.

As Tayuya's rage rekindled in the darkness so did the image she saw. Her house was now covered in flames and inside somewhere lay her fathered butchered corpse, something she wished she could have taken credit for after the years of abuse she had been dealt by his hands

"_I never understood why you were killed your worthless bastard back then but I understand it now, you were nothing but a gambling drunk fuck who insulted to many Kami damned scum by not paying on time." _Though Tayuya could not form words out of her mouth she still was able to form as smile as she watched her younger self sit in the snow and watch her home burn to the ground as empty tears froze to her rosy red cheeks.

As the snow picked up in the wind the image was gone and the blackness returned once again and enveloped everything other then the kunoichi. But just as fear was setting in at the presence of the endless oblivion threatened to swallow her another image haunted her mind like a phantom. This one she knew all to well for it was the one event which changed her life forever.

"My my, you must be frozen to the core dear child. Have you no home?" The serpent like voice hissed through the darkness and was soon accompanied by a tall pale figure wearing a heavy black coat buttoned up the midsection all the way up to the long black scarf that was wrapped and draped around his neck and hung off his chest. His long sleek black hair passed his shoulders and his head was crowned with a large black colored dyed conical straw hat that covered his face down to his snakelike yellow eyes.

"I d-don't have a home a-any more." The young girl replied with a frozen stutter in her voice.

Tayuya stared at the young version of herself that sat hunched over a knocked over garbage can as the child scrounged for food like a wild animal while only wearing a filthy rugged brown shirt that looks almost too much like a potato sack with holes cut into it for clothing use and nothing more then her old under wear. The only possessions the child had were the only things that weren't destroyed in the fire, which were the cloths on her back and her mothers flute which was luckily kept under the floor boards hidden in case her husband tried to pawn it off for beer money...or worse.

"And family dear child?" His lips practically smiled as he asked and awaited the answer he hoped to hear.

"D-dead and g-gone." Was all the child Tayuya could say.

"And the village does not take care of you?" His tone was filled with a sick joyful tone as he used his words carefully.

"N-no they call me a s-street rat and a lost little b-bitch, good for nothing thief and f-fucking disappointment." The child shivered ferociously as a gust of freezing wind and snow blew into the small alley way passed both her and the pale man.

"I see, Tell me child what do you know of snowflakes?" His straw hat reeled back as the snake Sannin looked up to the white clouds that showered them with ceaseless snow.

"W-well there f-frozen water drops that crystallize as they are frozen solid during their d-decent from the clouds to earth."

"A fine description little one, you know much for your age but tell me...what happens then?" His gaze fell down to the frigged child's eyes.

"T-then they melt and turn back into water t-that is evaporated back into the clouds to form more moisture m-molecules."

"They always melt child?" His sinister voice was watering as his trap nearly being set.

"Y-yes always sir."

"Look onto my hand child." With that the pale Sannin stretched his right hand out in front of the young child's face and opened his palm as a single snow flake fluttered down onto it and after moments had passed still retained its form and glowed bright white.

"Do you know why it does not melt? It is because I will it not to. I have the power child to preserve this snowflake that was fated to melt away and perish before anyone could notice its beauty. By my will it will not melt. Now tell me child, do you wish to be like this snowflake? To shine as it does and exist sustained simply by my will in a world that would pass you by as nothing more then a flicking of the wind?"

The young Tayuya stood motionless as she watched the snowflake stay on the mans hand and not melt despite his body's heat. She gazed into the heavenly glow which illuminated from the it and marveled at the impossible act. There was no explanation she could gather giving her intellect which she accumulated over the many books she had read over the years despite her fathers abuse and constant efforts to scold her and tell her it was useless for a worthless girl to educate herself.

"Well little one do you not want to show this world just how brightly you can shine?" Coaxed the albino warrior.

"Y-yes I do! I do want that power to shine and show them I am not a street rat b-bitch! What do I have to do sir?" Hey brown eyes lightened with what is know as hope filling her empty void.

"Orochimaru my dear girl but you shall call me Orochimaru-sama from now on if you are willing to follow my every command as a member of my village of Sound! Only then will I grant you all the power you wish."

As the girl nodded gleefully and hugged her saviors leg her new master opened his coat and wrapped the freezing girl with his vestments as they began walking in the alley away from her home village. She never noticed that once the snowflake had served its purpose of luring her into Orochi's world it had began to melt and was crushed with in his cold pale hand. Soon the alley dispersed and the snow turned black and melted into the darkness leaving the kunoichi alone in the void once more.

"_That day...I was fucking happy, So fucking happy to have hope in life once more. I'm such a dumb bitch to believe such shit." _

A dimly lit room manifested itself around Tayuya as she fell, the entire room was made out of large stone blacks with flags and murals hanging from the ceiling and off the walls depicting various clans and organizations insignias. In the center of the room stood a large velvet throne with a pair of torches illuminating in front of it giving scarce light to the musky chamber. From the entrance of the door to the main chamber two shadows flew off the wall and formed her master guiding her younger self into the chamber towards the throne.

The red haired kunoichi noticed she had stopped falling and was now standing in the center of the room watching as her master sat down and let himself sink into a comfortable position on his throne and motioned her younger self to him. Tayuya's eyes widened immediately at the memory as it burned its way back into her mind.

"_No!, not this I don't want to see this shit again! Kami no you damn bastard?!" _Her mind was on fire while her body was stricken with a ghostly frigged paralysis. _"Why the fuck do I have to see this! God damn it, god damn it!"_

"Come Tayuya and have a seat on my knee." Hissed the Sannin in an alluring tone.

"_Stop it!"_

"Hai Orochimaru sama!" The mini Tayuya eagerly hopped on her masters knee.

"_Stop it!"_

"Tayuya would you play for me a song?"

"_Damn it stop already!"_

"O-of course Orochimaru sama." The little girl cheerfully agreed.

"_..."_

Placing her brass flute to her lips the young Tayuya slowly began to play a soothing melody, slow at first but increased in pace as she heard her master ex hail with a pleased tone. She was happy her only ability was appreciated by her savior and didn't mind him placing a comforting hand on her shoulder as she played. In a few moments however she was positioned back over his lap causing her to look up at him and see his reassuring smile and nod for her to continue. She did so and continued to play the same tone until her master began to shift his legs and position the small child on his lap while she tried to play.

By this point the elder Tayuya had tears forming from the corners of her eyes at the sight of her confused younger self trying to play while her master reassured her everything was okay and to continue while he got into a comfortable position.

"_No more...please..." _She called out in her mind to the unseen being who was inflicting such torture on her but received no response only the image to grow louder as it brought her to her knee's to watch her younger selfs eyes grew wide as something pressed against her legs from underneath her. Her younger selfs music cracked in tone and she looked up to her master who only reassured her that everything was okay and for her to continue. The little child continued playing as tears formed under her eyes for a reason she couldn't explain, she just felt something was wrong but her savior acted as nothing was wrong so that meant nothing was wrong but that didn't seem help her feel any better as her mind began to become frantic. The object that pressed against her legs moved to her bottom slowly sending a shudder to run both up the little girls spine and her older self who was forced to watch on and shudder herself as if feeling it move up in between her legs and press against her causing the melody to break and look to her master frightened.

"Why did you stop child it was such a beautiful song." his snakish grin widened as he hissed.

"S-something feels w-wrong Orochimaru sama."

"Nothing is wrong my dear, I am merely enjoying your performance." Stretching out his pale hand he wiped of the tears out from underneath her eyes and caressed her cheek lovingly causing her to smile and bring the flute back to her lips and blow more of the melody's notes while her master slumped back into his seat and leisurely enjoyed the rest of her company as she finished the song uninterrupted and the Sannin complimented her and motioned her out of the room.

"_Why...why the fuck did I have to remember that?! Answer me Kami you sick fucking bastard! Isn't having to endure it once enough?! And...all of the other times...weren't they enough?" _

Her broken distraught rage filled voice now echoed into the amassed void of eternal darkness. The notion of her own body's movement surprised and amazed her and Tayuya wildly searched the dark void and felt the nothingness that solidified beneath her feet to test her surroundings only to feel absolutely nothing other then what she was touching made no sensations of touch to her skin. This newly acquired freedom didn't meet the kunoichi well as it only strengthened the notion that she wasn't alone in her entrapment.

Before she could enquirer the shapeless being once more she received an answer in the form of flashing memory's that nearly blinded her in such a way that pierced through her very soul even should she forcibly close her eyes to them. Voices as loud as thunder soon matched the images bring the once great kunoichi of Sound, Orochimaru's hand picked child, down to her knee's in agony holding her hands to her ears in a bitter futile manner.

The blur of memory's slowed into a single moment that painted it self before young girl as if a canvas of her own mind.

Another musky chamber larger then the last filled with benches rowed side by side and filling the immense space as if a zealot's hidden church closed off from the world which wasn't too far from the truth. In the barren end of the chamber stood a single brown podium with the speaker. Tayuya found her self standing in the back of the class as shadows took the form of students she knew and once knew all young no more then the ages of six and seven. They all waited patiently for their lord and master to begin speaking but the pale figure only looked over his flock with a wide grin. There were forty children in the room and the Sannin soon had them grouped into sets of ten and took them to four separate chambers, Tayuya's younger self was in the first group as she walked with the other candidates who were all confused as to what was going on once he ordered them to separate and go into four separate chambers. The older Tayuya watched in horror as she relieved Orochimaru entering her younger self's chamber and begin applying his fangs into the children one by one as he quickly came to her younger frightened self and smiled widely before leaning and placing his mouth on the terrorized shaking girls neck then moved and sunk his fangs into her flesh then releasing her as the seal began to form.

One by one the children began screaming in pain as their seals burned at their flesh and minds, the weaker ones dying in mere minutes while the more capable endured much longer periods of suffering. Tayuya's younger self curled into a ball among the other nine captives and curled herself on the floor gripping her neck as if pulling a parasite out of her body that hungered for control. She cried, she screamed, she thrashed...as did they all but the pain was becoming to much for her and she lost consciousness as she laid in a sweat covered heap. In the younger girls subconscious she saw fire. Raging fire devouring her childhood memory's as if they were mad with hunger. They burned a family photo on the wall of the day she was born. They tore at the walls which protected her in her youth, they covered the corpse of her father and in the opposite side of the room the flares of fire and ember danced around the ghostly image of a warped version of the young red head. The warped versions long red hair blew wild in the fiery wind that scattered flames, her eyes as black as night besides the yellow pupils and her head crowned with horns. Yes this was the image of herself that found satisfaction in the destruction of her youth, the was the image of herself that smiled sadistically as the fire raged and over took another area of the shambled hut she once called home. As the current Tayuya stood behind her younger self helplessly to the vision the curse mark on her own neck flared to life as if responding to its own astral image. This _creature _spoke out to the younger self in a harsh voice.

"_Why isnt you cry little bitch? Arnt you glad that fucker is dead? Arnt you glad our home is ash in the wind? Arnt you glad you no longer have any bonds to cause you pain and suffering any longer? Well fucking arnt you?!" _The twisted image screamed causing the girl to shiver and fall to the floor in the burning hut.

"_Ohhh poor baby, are you scared of me? You know you shouldn't be after all I am you...yes you. That sick fucking part of you that knows no suffering or pain, the part of you that is bound to Lord Orochimaru. Accept me and all I am, accept me as that part of yourself and you like I will not know the suffering of broken bonds, you will find enjoyment from the suffering of others and find contentment in serving Lord Orochimaru completely in body and mind and all you have to do is accept me and all that power is YOURS!" _The twisted version held out her dark skinned hand as if calling out to the young girl to walk through the fire to take it and though she feared the flames the young Tayuya slowly stepped her bare feet forward threw the passage of fire which separated them and felt no pain and reached out to her twisted self opening taking her hand.

As soon as they touched she found herself in the small chamber again surrounded by the dead bodies of her fellow students of Orochimaru and though she was drenched in sweat and her body felt as if it was on fire she slowly walked her way to the door and opened it revealing the light of the main chamber where her lord and master stood with another child at his side who had a head growing out of his back. Not before long the other chamber opened and two more children emerged, one being a giant of a boy and the other being an arachnid born into a humans body. Despite their differenced Orochimaru beckoned the children with loving open arms to gather before him. As they did one by one he motioned for them to kneel which they did either from respect, fear or the inability to stand any long.

"Congratulation my dear children, on this day you shall be known as the Sound Four and be heralded as my personal elite ninja. Rise my Sound Four for the true path of your servitude has been granted to you by your Curse marks that not only brand you as my personal guard and most capable of shinobi as well as grant you immense power and make you extensions of my will!" The snake sannin declared as he instructed them to follow him into a dark passage way where they would begin their true training.

As the four children followed their master as if their souls were stolen from them the elder Tayuya was bound to the center of the room and as everything dissipated into the eternal darkness she was hurdled downward into the abyss as it glowed red as if the the embodiment of hate itself and illuminated the darkness around her. Below among the murky black ocean of ebony stood a figure in a pure state of delight as the girl hurdled towards her at full speed. The figures crimson blood hair enveloping her, black eyes with yellow slitted pupils.

"Don't forget partner, were one now and I cant just let you die just yet!" The curse sealed Tayuya shouted to the normal stated one as she fell uncontrollability towards her cursed form in a head on collision with the sadistic grinning face as she awaited the normal Tayuya's decent.

They had collided in a eruption of light.

"AHHHHH!" Yelled the crimson haired Sound kunoichi was she awoke suddenly drenched in sweat and blood only to be further injured as the suns rays burned immediately into her unprepared retina's forcing her to yell in a sharper tone as she quickly covered them and shut her lids tightly and rapidly blinked to adjust her sight till her vision centered and the blurred glare dissipated leaving her to slowly take in her surroundings before she recoiled to the pain like pure fire that enveloped her lower body.

Fire ants, a shitload of them had taken to feeding off her unclosed wounds as they used their mini razor fangs to peel back and tear at her flesh while she was unconscious and in the split second as she saw them she realized she was not dead...yet. With out thinking Tayuya immediately began to swat her bruised hands over her legs while in intense pain to kill and drive off the hungry army and after a large portion of their ranks have been cut down the remaining insects scattered away clenching what skill skin flakes they had managed to tare off her as they dispersed.

"Fucking useless mother fucking shits!" She screamed while clenching her bloody legs before she immediately silenced herself and took an intense look around her and the surroundings.

It took but only a moment but she was still in the same spot she was last time she was awake. She still was leaned up against the tree and the dent in the ground caused by the Suna whore was still present in front of her yet there were no signs of her or the bastard Leaf nin who had humiliated her so forgivingly by aiding her. Tayuya scanned the tree line more focused then she had ever before to spot out even a hint that they or other nin's were present waiting for her to lead them unknowingly to the Sound base where her lord and master was so perfectly concealed. That thought alone put her body on complete edge. She didn't know why both the Leaf bastard and the Suna whore let her live but she refused to simply believe it was out of pity, no there had to be more but the luxury of time was far from her grasp as the threat of immediate discovery.

"F-fuck...need to g-get the fuck out of here bef...!" Tayuya was cut short as she made an attempt to stagger forward to her feet only to fall face first towards the hard ground barely able to guard her face with her battered arms.

"Arghh w-what the fuck?!" She shouted suddenly as she recovered and looked around wildly around her surroundings to catch an invisible assailant behind her but found no one. Glaring coldly into the nothingness Tayuya decided to swallow her pride for the moment and try again only to move a foot forward before dropping forward an inch away from the assorted grass and stones that made the patch of ground beneath her.

"Get up!, d-damn it get up!?" Her cries became filled with frustration and fear as she could not stand or walk forward. Turning behind her the red head quickly noticed her splinted right leg was not moving when she wanted it too. Turning around and sitting on her back side she punched the side of her thigh to feel nothing but the connection only on her fist. Punch after vicious punch with no pain or reaction left Tayuya wide eyed and in disbelief.

"No...Fuck no! NOT ME!? NOT FUCKING ME?!" Her voice was hysterical and filled with rage as she repeatedly punched and slammed her leg till she no longer could bare to anymore.

"...I'm fucking crippled, I don't believe this shit...I cant believe this shit!" The redhead spat as she desperately regained balance and bobbed side to side on her good left leg to scan the surrounding area for something' anything to aid her. All she found was a tree branch the blond bitch had create when she had cleared the area when she had arrived, it sickened Tayuya to have to resort to using something the blond had created but she needed a crutch and this was better then the thin branches and twigs that lay all around her.

Slowly limping towards the branch soon became a degrading crawl on all three's as her right leg sluggishly dragged behind her with each thud and scratching sound it made against the earth causing Tayuya to flinch bitterly till she took hold of her target and rested the blunt part under her arm and the pointed part to the ground carefully lifting her back on her foot.

Step by step she slowly trudged taking every few seconds to look over her shoulder for any sign of trackers or life in general. The feeling of helplessness never sat well with the girl in her entire life and she refused to get used to it now. She had nearly jumped out of her skin for just a few birds that had flew out of their nest mistaking them for a Konoha flunky. After composing her self with a few hushed swears the great Sound Ninja known as Tayuya trudged on for what seemed like an eternity of pain as her muscles screamed under her flesh to stop but as if inflicting pain to silence pain she continued as a t estimate to her own strength and will power. It was enough to make her grin crookedly as she stopped to take her first rest in order to take in her surroundings and estimate just how far she was in terms of boarder territory.

"I'm past those Konaha fuckers territory now...to the east is the valley of the end and north is Oto base but f-fuck I cant make it there while I am in this shit ass situation. Orochimaru will k-kill me for sure for being late never mind that d-damned mission." Tayuya took a moment to look to stare past the tree line and lean on her crutch. "F-fuck it I don't give a shit anymore let him kill me, that bastard can wait till I get back!" Lowering her head with a cracked smile Tayuya trudged on resigned to her dismal fate.

Tayuya was soon drawn from her ever spiraling thoughts by the sounds of life off in the distance ahead of her where the sounds of village life rose from. Carefully she closed the distance and staked out the village. It was small, only a handful of houses and the 'rich' side of town was a single house in the center of town. The market area consisted of two shops and a few shabby vender's and to her surprise no patrols were present making rounds.

"Back water shithole...fucking fitting for my ass to rot." The red heads smile twisted in pain as she continued towards the village seeking sanctuary to tend to her to her wounds before surcoming to them.

But entering now wasn't an option. A wounded bloodstained girl dragging herself into a strange town wearing the uniform of the nations most wanted village in broad daylight. She might have been slightly delusional from blood loss but not retarded.

Nightfall was not far off and she was content for the moment to rest her tired body in a nearby hallowed out tree trunk. Slumping back into it Tayuya rested her wooden crutch aside her and began to make hand signs and brought her right palm to the entrance of of the tree trunk "Henge!" The illusion was cast which formed the image of a whole tree protecting her from being found.

She only had one thought before her contentiousness blacked out.

_"Come on T-tayuya you can wait till nightfall. Hold it t-together." _


	3. Deaths Chilling Touch

**_AC: Its been long over due so I more then owe all of you this. For awhile I decided to stop writting, you can say my muse who inspired me to write blew up on me because I "idolized" the character I mainly write about...but since I have up my hobby I have had inspiration oozing from every...well you get the idea. I will continue both stories if not a a MUCH slower pace then before._**

* * *

Tayuya awoke from her dreamless sleep ragged and unenergized to the cold chills that enveloped her now pale skin as the frigged night air enveloped her for the second time from her collapse after her disgraceful defeat at the Leaf, Sand alliance. Her stomach groaned horribly from what felt like two days with out nutrition while her body wreaked with sweat, dirt and blood. Steadying the thick stick under her right arm Tayuya wordless raised herself within the confines of the hallowed out tree and took two shaky steps exiting her henge jutsu and peering out into the murky night sky beyond the tree line while her dark brown eyes readjusted their focus. In a moment a cold sensation caught her in the eye forcing her lid shut followed the the familiar sounds of wet pitier patterings all over the forest and her body.

" ...Rain...just fucking great." Tayuya thought to herself with a crooked joyless smile as she stood in the down pour and accepted it as the heavens themselves pissing down on her life mockingly.

Silently the Sound nin marched to the outer reaches of the small village, no defensive walls present like those of major cities and more surprisingly no real defenses besides two men who made sluggish rounds while they conversed to each other oblivious to her as she peered around the corners of the hobbled huts and houses which made up the small residential area. Carefully she accessed a few of the buildings. Three fairly small low income houses and all of them with only one floor which made Tayuya smile mirthlessly since in her newly found condition she really didn't want to crawl into and out of windows with a limp senseless leg dragging behind her. Regardless Tayuya paced around the first house careful not to hit a rock with her stick as she tried to balance her self while peering ominously through the three large glassless windows that marred the dirty brown shake.

Three rooms she could make out in the darkness were the kitchen, bedroom where the two parents slept silently and their children's room consisting of a boy and a girl, both with short choppy hair sharing the same bed while both tossing and turning restlessly. After the third patrol of the small house Tayuya had quickly picked the lock on the back door using the last remaining metal piece of her flute. Turning the knob carefully the Sound nin entered the darkened shake and adjusted her dark brown eyes to the darkness with a narrow glare at the surroundings while she checked off the three main things required of a nin on the run to do. Escape point locations, possible weapons and a means to kill herself should capture be inevitable. And right now none of her options looked good.

"Knifes in the sink, window above the sink...fucking great options." She groaned silently to herself as she limped over the old wooden floorboards and retrieved three of them then carefully placed them into her pants against her limp leg. That way if they dig into her flesh she wouldn't feel it.

"Now for some fucking supplies." Tayuya hissed bitterly to her self as she carefully limped across the kitchen silently as she could giving her wounded body and scratchy crutch and entered the bathroom only to be vastly disappointed at the barren stained tiles and empty cabinets that marred the walls.

_"Just my fucking luck to break into the poorest mother fuckers on the blocks house first!" _Mentally groaned the red head as she hung her head in the mirror and clutched the sink with unsteady hands as she prepared to rebalanced her self and exited huffing in anger making her way to the back door but was abruptly stopped by the sounds of soft foot steps against dry old wood.

"_Shit they fucking heard me!?" Tayuya mentally cursed as she quickly limped to the side of their refrigerator and tried to glance at the figure who entered the room but pulled back due to their close proximity. It didn't take long for the stress to make Tayuya resort to lethal measures as she readied her makeshift crutch to impale their throat for a silent kill.  
Balancing her body against the side of the fridge Tayuya turned the corner with death in her eyes and stick split seconds away from tearing into the little child's neck who stood before her._

The small girl no more then five years old of age stood in front of Tayuya with her short choppy hair and brown bag like shirt and pants. The child held a partially white bunny rabbit closely against her chest with both arms hugging it firmly and stared with unblinking glazed golden eyes that seemed to be fixated on where Tayuya stood.

"_She's blind?" Tayuya thought quickly as she retracted the stick away from the girls jugular vein._

"Mommy is that you?" Asked the girl as she out stretched her hand closer to Tayuya tattered garb while slowly walking closer.

Seeing this Tayuya regretfully swallowed her pride and made a mad dash for the door while feeling the sharp edge of the stick puncture under her right arm as she disparately tried to maintain balance as she exited the house and collided with nearby trash cans due to the mud which now made up the villages streets.

The few patrols of the village became startled by the sound and called out to each other as they closed the distance to the area where the noise came from only to find a raccoon head first in the can scrounging for a free meal.

"Damn blasted pests!" A guard called out as he attempted to scare it away.

Having chased the assailant away both men walked away complaining about the weather unaware of the dark cold eyes that stared at them from behind the shadows of the night.

"Fucking good for nothing scum!" Tayuya growled to her self as she limped from between the houses and into the rain and noticed she was covered in mud from crashing into the garbage cans and crawling off the floor.

"J-just fucking great..." She paused catching her breath. "Shits no different from before Lord Orochimaru, I'm crawling around in the mud of some poor ass shit hole on the verge of death but I wont die, do you hear me you fucking gods?!" Tayuya spat venomously to the stormy heavens as the rain picked up and washed some of the mud off her pale skin. The thought quickly occurred to her that a promise Orochimaru had made to her was now broken, he had promised when she was admitted into his ranks that she would never experience this life again. But she couldn't blame him for her current situation, she was in this condition because of the Suna whore and the shadow prick as well as her inability to kill them.

"_You won't die_." A voice called out to Tayuya from the inner recesses of her mind snapping her out of her self loathing. It was dark and familiar to her since she got used to it's influence after her curse seal was imprinted on her.

"Thats right. I won't die from this...not this shit." Tayuya's voice became softer as her vision blurred momentarily before she refocused and limped to the next house and leaned against the door while focusing her hand to pick the lick using the last remaining flute piece once more and picked the lock with relative ease.

To Tayuya's surprise this house was surprisingly well furnished in its interior then its exterior which was over run with weeds and vines stretching along side the house. The walls were marred with paintings of valleys, smiling families and friends from what she can tell. It disgusted her. Swallowing her disdain Tayuya proceeded to limp to the bathroom while taking note of the rather large apartment and taking care not to make a sound with her crutch against the old floorboards while she trudged her tired body directly to the bathroom and carefully opened the cubers to see a large variety of medicine which had some practical use for her situation. Aspen, painkillers, disinfectants and an assortment of various other drugs that could be applicable for her. She couldn't help but grin as her chances for survival increased.

"Who is in there?" An old sounding man suddenly called out as he flicked the light for the room on surprising Tayuya and making her cringe in pain as she almost jumped to attention. The look in her eyes were those of a wild starving animal that just made its kill and would protect its spoils with its life.

Tayuya clenched the pharmaceuticals tightly to her chest while leaning against the makeshift crutch to pull one of the kitchen knives from the confines of her garb and ready it at the old man.

"Calm down young lady there is no reason to resort to violence!" He spoke sternly but quietly to her catching the Sound nin off guard for a moment for she expected him to yell or run for help.

"It's your fucking fault you old fucker, you should have stayed in bed and this never would have happened!" She spat while taking a few limps in his direction while readying her right hand with the knife waiting for his slightest movement.

"Your injured aren't you?. If thats all you need then please take it." His voice held genuine concern as he spoke calmly, not that Tayuya was used to ever hearing any concern for anyone that was genuine before.

"How the fuck do you know that you old coot?!" Tayuya snapped venomously while gripping the knife handle tightly in defense.

"Y-your losing too much blood all over my house thats how child." He pointed down to the floor with a shaky hand to the trail of blood drops too puddles that lay under Tayuya's feet.

"...?!" Tayuya soon froze as she quickly glanced down to see if the old mans words were true and indeed saw the blood trail leading up to her. Out of shock the many bottles of pills and medicines dropped to the floor and slowly rolled amongst her crimson life essence which profusely seeped from the now open gash along the side of her stomach. Pressing a shaking hand over the dark red stain of her shirt she felt sharp pain and looked in horror at her now bloody palm.

"_W-why didn't I realize s-sooner?!_" She thought with dread as she pressed her hand against her bare skin and felt how freezing her body was. There simply was no warmth emitting from her soaked, mud covered form.

"H-hypothermia?!" She gasped aloud while still looking at her bloody palm. "I...I never noticed...fuck..must have opened my wounds when that brat made me...leave...f-fuck..." Tayuya spoke to her self with parted breaths as she quickly was becoming dizzy from blood lose and her freezing body temperature. She hadn't even noticed she had dropped her knife to the floor and walked lifelessly passed the frightened old man who quickly moved out of her way as she desperately tried to leave the residence while forgetting about the very medicine she had came to retrieve.

"Child where are you going?!, you need immediate medical attention do you hear me!" He cried out with concern as she limped unsteadily for the door to exit into the pouring rain. "You will catch your death out there!" He reached for her shoulder only to have her quickly spin around to bat him away but miss his head by a few feet while her crutch fell out from under her arm while she lost her footing and hit the old wooden floor with a hard moist sounding thud.

While Tayuya gazed unevenly at the spinning ceiling and old man who spook with words she no longer could make out she hoped that this was the last time she would feel such uselessness and humiliation. From her blurred vision she could make out an old woman rushing to the old mans side and opening and closing her mouth very quickly while making inaudible sounds. Tayuya's last glimpses of contentiousness were both people looking at her while she wished the same thing over and over again in her mind.

"_Please...Kami...kill...me...please...kill..me_" Tayuya's eyes closed softly as her body shiver on the wooden floorboards now damp with her blood. She was unaware that both old residents quickly wrapped blankest and wrapped her body with them and prepared hot wet blankets and cloths as well as retrieve the medicine she had left sprawled on in the bathroom. They have both seen enough young children die to push themselves to allow it to happen to this one...not again if they could help it.


	4. The Touch Of Mercy

Consciousness set in like a dulled fog which slowly reactivated Tayuya's senses as she squinted her eyes tightly as golden rays shined down passed the blinds and onto her face. Blinking profusely Tayuya's dark brown eye focused on the image of an old woman leaning over her head.

"I-im not dead yet?" Tayuya spoke in a soft hoarse voice.

"Ohh heavens no child but you were so close to it last night. Korijo dear she woke up!" The older woman called out as the older man walked into the living room of which they occupied. Soon both of the residents looked over Tayuya.

"Where am I?!, you senile fucks answer me!" Tayuya shouted with a dry horsed voice as she attempted to get up.

"Please young lady you are in no danger here but you mustn't get up you have a sever fever from your wounds." Calmly spoke the old man as he walked over to Tayuya who rested on a bed carefully tucked under sheets.

"...I'm not safe anywhere old man..." Tayuya spoke quietly while resisting the urge to rest. "Now answer me! Who the fuck are you?!" Tayuya spat at the old man who took a seat across from the infuriated girl.

"I'm am Korijo Takahashi and this is my wife Inoue Takahashi and you are in our house which you broke into last night." Korijo paused seeing the girl noticeably tense up and her glare intensify. As a response to this he rubbed his white beard diligently and looked to Inoue who offered both him and the young intruder a cup of tea resting it on a table stand near her bed.

"You need not worry child, we do not intend to have you arrested for home invasion and theft." He paused to take a sip of hot tea. "We are not so ignorant to be oblivious to a person in desperate need."

Tayuya looked intently at the old couple as her body stiffened from the situation.

"Please drink up, you need to keep your fluids up for that fever of yours." Korijo insisted pushing the tea cup towards her only for Tayuya to reach for it slowly then bat it off the table spilling it on their floor.

Korijo smiled weakly at the red head and scratched the tip of his beard as his wife quickly began to pick up the pieces.

"You know it is a good thing tea is easier to clean then blood young lady." He finished nodding knowingly then set his cup on the table.

Tayuya scowled then looked away and inhaled a long dry breath into her sore throat. The air burned a little and she began to see her action to be premature and detrimental for her condition because after all if they planned to poison her they would have already done it. But acts of pity are as bitter to her as any poison.

"Young lady?" His voice spoke up snapping Tayuya out of her daze. "Would you like another cup of tea?" He asked holding a fresh cup up to her.

"...Fine shithead..." Her threatening tone trailed off as she took the tea cautiously and sipped it quickly not minding the hot liquid burning her mouth. Finishing the cup in a few gulps Tayuya let out a soft sigh of satisfaction. "This shits not bad..." She forced herself to as she pushed herself up forward.

"Please do not push your self young lady you need to rest yourself." Korijo added again to Tayuya's annoyance.

"Tayuya..." The red head spoke up as a lone response.

"Tayuya?" Asked the old man inquisitively.

"It's my name understand? I am fucking sick of you both calling me young lady!" The red head shouted as loud as she could giving her sore throat.

"My my such a lovely name Tayuya although I would never have guessed it with that mouth of yours." Inoue chimed in with a pleasant tone.

"What the fuck is that suppose to mean?!, are you trying to insult me?!" Tayuya screamed while tightening her grip on the sheets till her knuckles turned white.

"No no Tayuya, I just found it ironic that your name can mean classical yet your speech is well..the opposite." Inoue slowly stopped talking once she realized she did insult the bed ridden girl. "I'm sorry Tayuya I didn't mean to insult you." Inoue began bowing genially to the red head.

"Stop bowing...just give me another cup of that crap okay?" Tayuya reserved her voice as she looked away.

"No problem deary." Inoue steaded her hand and poured more of the warm green tea into a glass and handed it to the wounded kunoichi.

Tayuya said nothing as she finished her second glass of tea and remained sitting up despite the uncomfortable pain she was in. By closing her eyes she could feel where every wound and bandage was on her body save for her disabled leg from which she felt nothing. A bandaged applied along the right side of her neck from the gash that nearly slit it open. Bandages wrapped around the left side of her stomach from the tree branch that impaled her and all the various cuts and gashes from that whirl wind caused by the fucking weasel. The disgrace she felt almost made her smile bitter sweetly.

"So...why did you senile fucks save my life?" Tayuya asked suddenly in a low voice. "You could have let me bleed to death last night or turned me over to the cops to worry about...you had no reason to go through all this trouble seeing as how I was ready to kill you last night."

Korijo remained quiet for awhile while his wife looked at him sternly possibly for not telling her that part of the encounter.

"...Your a ninja correct?" The old man finally responded sternly.

"What of it bastard?" Her response cold and non chelate.

"I don't know what happened to you to put you in such a condition but this village is practically anti shinobi, depending on your village and clan affiliation that would determine if you would be alive right now or not to them...had I taken you to a hospital they most likely wouldn't have tried to save your life."

"If you villager hate shinobi's so much why save me?" Tayuya retorted with a little more anger in her tone then before.

"We...no this family does not represent the views of the village. After all own our own son is a ninja so how can we let you die so horribly before us?" His voice soft and full with sentimentalism.

"...That thinking will get you killed you realize. Allowing murderers into your home." Tayuya's lips twisted into a sinister smile as she looked up at both of them from behind the locks of her untamed hair.

Both elderly parents looked at her for a moment. It was obvious she had killed before and most likely enjoyed it.

"We are well aware of the duties of a shinobi for both myself and Inoue participated in the first great ninja war." Korijo spoke up much to his wifes surprise. He simply waved her off from speaking out at the moment.

Taken back by this information it made sense to Tayuya for them to aid a ninja.

"Your guilty as hell aren't you?" Both of the former shinobi's looked with confused faces at the red heads statement. "Don't understand me scum? Let me spell it our for you then. Your guilty for all the killings you have committed!, all the atrocities and deaths by your hands! Tell me do you feel you had to help me because I looked like some child you slaughtered?!" Tayuya screamed loudly shaking the elderly citizens with her bile.

"Korijo l-lets leave her be to rest." Inoue pleaded as she pushed back the tears building up in her eyes while she tugged her husbands arm.

"...Not yet dear. She wants an answer so I will give her it." Inoue backed away with surprise from her husband. "Your not wrong Tayuya. We did many things in the names of our villages, many horrible things for reasons like security of our people and revenge..." He paused as if pained to continue. "I have stared into the eyes of children as they watch me kill their parents and stared into the eyes of parents as they watched me kill their children...all the bloodshed and what was gained? Do you know why we adults fought and murdered each other?"

Tayuya held her glare steady to his quaking eyes as if trying to show him the decades of the rage of war that was built into her by her master.

"I know why bastard, its because you adults fucking enjoyed it! Its because deep down were all god damned monsters waiting to tear each other apart for trivial reasons like greed, envy and malice."

Korijo sighed deeply as a response to her cold words.

"Generations of a soldiers rage breed by war drilled into the body and mind of a young child...theres no greater evidence that war truly is hell now is there?" He asked him self while slowly walking to the kitchen. "Lets leave her be Inoue, she needs her rest more then she knows."

As the elderly couple cleared the doorway Tayuya reared her head to the window above her and stared out into the bright blue sky and contemplated the actions she now needed to take. After all it was against her honor to kill defenseless old shits especially if they were aiding her but they knew her face, they knew her name...though she only had her self to blame for that and they knew her situation as a kunoichi on the run. She was thorough and precise unlike her teammates save for Kimimaro who would complete tasks before his opponents had time to guard but unlike him she was for the most part her own person considering she was Orochimaru's slave which was more then a well known fact.

Because of this she had a sense of morals if not harsh and misplaced and killing the elderly outside of a direct order or a absolutely necessary precaution for her safety and mission so killing them...even while they slept and were unaware at this moment didn't feel right to Tayuya.

Tugging the covers over her head to hide from the world she had been brought into she spoke softly for her ears only. "...I need to get the fuck out of here."


	5. Defeatism

**_A/C:Strath here with the latest chapter, Cursed Deaths new chapter will follow shortly. Must give thanks to Haraio and Valkyia Chronicals for added inspiration to have this chap finished and released. As allways reviews are life blood for writers._**

Darkness and silence were her veil as Tayuya stealthily trudged crossed the vacant house nearing her exit. She already was regretting letting the old pion's live but she would regret it more if she went back to their room to kill them, after all she was not a monster...as fucked up as she was. As Tayuya contemplated the situation memories of others she had kill that left sour and bitter tastes in her mouth flooded back to her. Memories of a mission where the Sound Four were commanded to lay down a village personally that had nothing to do with Sound or their masters goals for it was simply a request to stir up chaos in the land of Rice Fields and to demonstrate to all passerby of Sounds presence.

The mission was much like now, at night while families rest in bed, while drunkards stumble out of bars and while prostitutes headed back after another night of work. It was all these people from so many different walks of life would die in senseless carnage. Her mind wandered from the living room to the edge of a forest over looking a small village much like this one. Tayuya and her comrades stood perched on a thick branch over looking the denizens of the town.

"So who has got the first turn?" Kidomaru asked as he plucked the webbing connecting his self made arrow to his throat. The mission hadn't even commenced and already he had transformed in preparation. Tayuya could have sworn he said something about looking like a boss to the people before they died this night.

"You can go before me Kidomaru." Jirobo responded as he sat back against the trunk of the giant oak. "I will take their houses anyway so you can take the people."

"What about you Tayuya?" Sakon asked as he stood eagerly at the edge of the branch with anticipation building up.

She perked to attention with the usual cold stare. "It doesn't matter to me what the fuck job I have here." She snapped softly as to not gain attention.

"Tayuya girls do not speak like that." Jirobo chimed in on cue.

"Fuck off fat ass!, who the hell are you to dictate that?!" He then backed off the subject much to Kidomaru's and Sakon's amusement.

After their usual banter the team quieted down as the mission time drew near, they would have half an hour to kill just under a hundred villagers. More time then any one of them would need.

"We begin operation on my mark!" Sakon boasted smugly as he dashed down into the darkness of the tree line and vanished. As his imaged blurred into the mass of greens then became lost with in the confines of the towns walls all three members took position each covering one exit of the village while each member waited for the flashy signal they all know he would create to start the carnage.

No sooner had he left Sakon stood in the middle of the town with his twin Ukon which only meant they had something sadistically unique in mind. Both twins created hand signs quickly then placed their palms flat on opposing houses.

"Kuchiyose: Rashomon!" They cried as the ground beneath the houses erupted as two massive demonic doors spawned inside the houses as they crashed threw walls and ceiling alike till the monolithic entities became bloody monuments in the center of town. Tayuya noticed the mangled bodies atop one of the doors as their crushed limbs dangled with broken wood and bed posts stabbing out of them. Just the sleeping pairs luck to have a demonic door arise from under their bed she thought disinterested already with their Sakon's showmanship.

"Damn thats gotta be worth one hundred points each!" Kidomaru grinned as he aimed his arrows at the now awoken towns people who scurried from their houses like maggots from a kicked corpse. "You set the high score but I'm the one who is gonna beat it!" With his lone proclamation finished Kidomaru let a volley of arrows loose into the full streets impaling rows of people in a matter of moments.

It did not take long for the residents to stay inside their homes as Tayuya noticed and she would have complimented their efforts if she didn't already know it was in vein and Jirobo hurled larges chunks of the earth out from underneath him and laughed as they crashed threw straw house roofs and cheap wood.

Her role was not as devious, she merely controlled her Doki and batted the cowards who deserted their friends and family's into a bloody broken mess. It was liberating work. But for this mission only two men had been able to evade the three other Oto nin's to gain the privilege of being her victims. Outside the sound of her own haunting melody all Tayuya could hear was the cries and screams of the villagers as their sounds echoed into the darkness then faded. So sooner had the attack begun it ended leaving an eerie silence in its wake.

"Mission completed." Sakon announced as he brother Ukon slumped back into his body already fatigued from his work as the twins sat on a broken chimney satisfied at their work.

"Can't wait for the next mission lord Orochimaru sends us on." Added Kidomaru as he scrapped the blood platter off himself carefully with the edge of an arrow.

"Not yet everyone theres still some vermin left over there." Sakon pointed passed his three comrades to a shaking hay stack next to a crushed building. "Jirobo go take care of it so we can return to the base will you."

With out protest Jirobo complied and lumbered the the stack and swatted it away revealing two cowering children clinging to their mothers limp body.

"Their just kids Sakon." Jirobo called back already losing interest in killing them.

"Stop being a pussy jackass and get this shit over with already!" Tayuya shot back not looking at him.

"Wow if you feel that strongly about it why don't you do the honors and finish them off Tayuya?" Sakon cut in with a devilish grin as he leaned forward off the chimney.

"Fuck off, why the hell should I?" turning her head back to face him

"Because of the four of us you got the lowest points." Kidomaru pointed out as he threw his arrow into the damp blood stained dirt.

"What the hell are you talking about four arms?" Tayuya asked half heartedly already knowing what he was talking about.

"You did the least on the mission so unless you want to fail Orochimaru-samma you should at least complete it right?" Kidomaru grinned widely.

"Come on Kidomaru you know she is all bark and no bite." Sakon sneered in sadistic amusement.

The Sound nin's body tensed to all the insults. "No fucking bark huh?!" Tayuya turned to the children walking slowly while taking her flute that was nestled securely between garb and bow then placing it just above her lips. "Good night little ones." With those parting words she began to blow a few simple notes to the quivering children, those notes soon fastened into a haunting melody which lulled then softly to sleep beside their dead mothers corpse.

"Thats it Tayuya?" Sakon whined as he dispelled her genjutsu. As an answer Tayuya placed her palm flat on the ground summoning her Doki. With a few soft notes the clubbed one positioned himself beside the children and raised his weapon high in the air and over shadow the children's faces with its mass.

"She wont do it." Jirobo chuckled nervously to himself.

In a moment the air was filled with a sharp note followed by the swishing sound of the weapon and the cracking wet noise of skulls spilling their contents upon the group.

Her teammates said nothing as she walked away back to the base. Despite her silence Tayuya could not help but grip her flute tighter in her sweaty palm. Part of her was angry while the other was satisfied but yet the strangest thought she had was pity and envy since they had lost everything at such a young age and didn't have to suffer through the cold reality of life like she has had too.

Images of the past faded like mist into the back of Tayuya's vision as her body had mechanically came to a stop as a pulse of dread washed over her. All sounds fell silent around her as the forest fell to a standstill.

"L-lord Orochimaru-Samma." Tayuya spoke aloud barely over a whisper as she slowly dropped to her knees in obedience at his presence.

Through the lush brush of tree's the pale face came into view with reptile eyes glowing brightly like two demonic moons amidst the darkness of night. His arms were unbandaged and his features devoid of any instance of pain or agony, Kimimaro had spoken true when he said that they were far to late with the Uchiha and that he had switched bodies.

Orochimaru smiled openly to her as he crossed his arms and feigned pity at her condition. "There you are Tayuya, I had feared you had decided not to come back after your teams failure."

Tayuya's brown eyes widened in shock at the word of failure. The thought of the Sound Four, no the Sound Five all failing was nearly inconceivable.

"H-how is that possible lord Orochimaru-samma?!, None of those shits could have beaten Kimimaro!" Her voice practically pleading with him.

"Ohh but dear Tayuya it appears they managed too since he is no longer among the living, a regretful shame giving his immense worth and devotion to my cause." Despite his words the snake sannins face was remorseless.

"Not just Kimimaro either Tayuya but the entire Sound Five save for your self." Kabuto stated as he cleared the trees and stood slightly beside his master as the moon flickered devilishly off his glasses.

"That is impossible!" Tayuya yelled earning grins from both her master and his servant. "There is no way those gennin shits could beat all of us even with Sands help." Tayuya roared back despite her position.

"Indeed it is a wonderment how all of them were defeated lord Orochimaru-samma." Kabuto said turning to his master before turning back the the redhead. "What happened during the mission Tayuya?"

"W-we all separated to take care of those little shits squad. Jirobo stayed behind first to stall them, then Kidomaru fought some blind looking mother fucker so me and Sakon would bring the barrel then he was blown off a cliff with one of those leaf fagots wearing a hood and a rodent. I took the barrel till their leader and the orange fagot when Kimimaro came and took the barrel from me so thats when I fought their leader the dickless pineapple headed bastard with his fucking fetish for strangling with his god damn shadow!"

Kabuto took out a pack of card while nodding and filing through them till he pulled out six cards and tapped them releasing his chakra into them. "Are these the team Tayuya?" Tayuya looked passed her master to see them and rage grew immediate in her features.

"All these fucks but the retarded looking one with the bowl hair cut." Tayuya replied pointing to a picture of Rock Lee.

"And your health Tayuya?, you do not look in the best of shape. Was the newly elected chunin that much trouble for you?" Kabuto continued not bothering to mask his amusement at her situation.

"That fucker did not do this to me!, it was the blond sand whore with her fucking fan and ferret!" Tayuya reared her head slightly in disgust. "The bitch did this to my leg and because of it I cant feel it any more." Tayuya punched her leg hard while showing no pain in the process.

"Thats simply dreadful to hear isn't it lord Orochimaru-samma?"

"Indeed Kabuto indeed." His eyes scanned her body with mild interest.

"Then that means all of you are weaker then shit." Proclaimed the Uchiha prodigy who decided to remain aside from his new master.

Tayuya snapped her head in the Uchiha's direction as soon as his presence was made known and gazed at him with a dumbfounded expression. "I thought the mission failed and you were lost to Orochimaru-samma!"

"You need to tune your ears and listen to your master better. He said your team failed to bring me back not that I failed to make it back on my own."

"Which leads to why we are here my dear Tayuya." The pale sannin hissed softly as he caressed her cheek slowly before continue. "I had hoped more members of the Sound Five would have survived since at least if there were two of you there might have still been a use but seeing as how you are the only one there is no need to keep you around any longer." His hand turned to a grip as he lifted her head to meet his own. "I have no use for broken worthless ninja."

Tayuya's unblinking brown eyes watched as her master lost amusement in his face and as a serpent slithered out from his collar and wrapped slowly down his newly restored arms and made its way to her face hissing all the while. The serpent opened its mouth while baring fangs and draping saliva as the legendary sword Kusanagi slowly pushed its way out and fell into its masters hand as he let go of her face and raised the blade high above her head.

"I-I understand lord Orochimaru-samma." Tayuya choked out as she fell to her hands and stared at the cold ground as she waited for her inevitable end.

"Hmpt."

"Something wrong Sasuke-Kun?" Kabuto asked turning away from the execution before him.

"I had assumed this would be worth my time and not be some outing to kill weaklings off in the woods."

Tayuya's knuckled turned white as she gripped the loose dirt between her fingers at his insults.

"Do you disagree with disposing of trash Sasuke-kun?" The sannin asked as the blade lowered to meet her face and glim in the darkness.

"Or maybe there is still a use for her that is beneficial to Sasuke-kun lord Orochimaru-samma." Kabuto smirked as he got both his masters and the stoic Uchiha's attention. "Sasuke-kun does have the goals of killing Itachi and restoring the Uchiha clan and at least with her still around he can accomplish one goal before the transfer, after all 3 months is a sizable time to have children." Orochimaru could only grin at his subordinates devilish wicked mind.

" A sperm dumpster?!, that fucker Kabuto is actually fucking suggesting I live out my life as a mother fucking sperm dumpster?!" Tayuya's mind roared as she gritted her teeth and cringed as she involuntarily scrapped off years of enameled at the mere thought before looking to the Uchiha for a response and to her horror his eyes were shut in contemplation, deep contemplation. Before she could break the silence with loud protest however he opened his eyes and turned to Kabuto.

"A mother of children is suppose to be able to care for them and raise them in their fathers absence, as she is she is not even capable of such a simple act." Sasuke turned to the shocked redhead. "I have no use of a useless gimp to mother my clan."

Tayuya's head involuntarily fell to the gaze of the ground as her mind soaked in his words. Not only was she useless now in the eyes of her master as a ninja, a weapon and as a member of Sound but now she was useless as a women? Useless in all that she had sacrificed in order to be a capable tool and formidable ninja of Sound?

"Then please kill me lord Orochimaru-samma, it is my final request as a former ninja of your service." Her voice was hollow sounding and low, a mere ghost of her former self.

"Hmm I would Tayuya my dear but Kabuto has raised a good point, he has reminded me that you are a subordinate of my precious Sasuke-kun so your fate I will leave to him to decide as your leader." The pale sannin turned from the decrepit girl groveling at his knees and faced his newest pupil and body.

"My choice as the leader of the Sound Four?" Sasuke asked with spite in his voice at the obligation. He took a moment to eye the girl at the sannins sandals, she didn't bother to look at him this time, it was obvious she no longer cared what choice he made.

"And she is completely useless?" He asked his master causing a slight tremble in the girls form.

"Completely Sasuke-kun, it would be too much of an insult to Sound to demote an elite ninja to the rank of floor."

"In that case I have one final mission for you." Sasuke spoke clearly dragging the girls attention from the meaningless dirt that lay before her as she looked up at him. "What was your purpose in life?" His voice echoed in her ears as her own voice when she confronted him that night in Konoha.

"My purpose was to be lord Orochimaru-samma's servant, his weapon and his slave. To complete what he tasked me with out question or hesitation, to be an instrument of his will as my flute is an instrument of my will." Her hollow voice said aloud as if reading off rhetoric.

"Ahh thats right, that was the oath you made to me when I officially swore you into my service as a Sound Four member." Orochimaru sneered at the memory. "After remembering such a touching moment it will pain me to cut your pretty little head off should Sasuke-kun decide to end your wretched existence."

"Then your mission is this." Sasuke continued "Live in a simple third rate village where you and your loser villagers cry on each others shoulders as you try to play ninja each day knowing your worthlessness." The Uchiha turned and placed his hands in his pocket as he walked back into the shadows of the forest "Do not forget your new purpose."

"Lord Orochimaru-samma Sasuke-kun really is a piece of work isn't he?" Kabuto asked while grinning to his master and taking a look at the former Sound nin as she tried to hold her self off the ground.

Tayuya said nothing as they left her alone in the woods with nothing but cold winds and silence as her company. Her hair draped down over her face to hide her shame, her anger and her tears. She was free, a thought she had given up shortly after being awoken to the real world by Orochimaru but this freedom meant absolutely nothing because now she was nothing.

"Am I so useless lord Orochimaru?, so fucking useless?!" Her voice yelled softly against the ground before her for her ears only as she allowed her body to slump against the soil as she howled into the night.

Not too far away admits the mass of tree's and unworn trails the snake Sannin, his servant and the student walked back to their base.

"Was that wise lord Orochimaru-samma?"

"If it is Sasuke-kuns wish to show mercy by cruelty then it is good to humor him."

"I understand that lord Orochimaru-samma but Sasuke-kun is inexperienced in decisions concerning the integrity of Sound."

"How so Kabuto?" The sannin asked turning to his subordinate with peeked interest.

"Well Sasuke-kun is unfamiliar with the interrogation methods at his former villages disposal and while Tayuya may be loyal to you now eventually she will become a liability given her knowledge."

"Hmmm then dispatch with her quickly Kabuto, we must not let foolish thoughts such as sentimentality to cloud our judgment."

"As you wish Orochimaru-samma!" With a bow and a sinister grin Kabuto back tracked into the the darkness of the endless greens and disappeared from his masters view who then focused his gaze at his new perfect body with darkest intent.

"Three years Sasuke-kuns." His yellow eyes widening. "Just three more years!"

Alone in a clearing of dirt and leafs Tayuya sat braced with her fingers gripping the ground as she gritted her teach to hold back the unbearable feeling of howling in rage, despair and agony that filled her to her core. Her life held no longer purpose, her physical condition mirrored that of a limping animal left to die in the wilderness and any hope she once had held for revenge against those who had damaged her so had waved her off as it walked into the forest never to be found again. She had attained freedom at last, a thought she had given up on years ago after being accumulated in the ranks of the Sannin and felt the pain caused by his fangs that pressed deeply into the side of her neck. This freedom was as meaningless and hollow as she now felt.

The parting of hair flowed down from her face and rested on the ground as her forehead met the cold moist dirt as her body sank a little bit more against the earth.

"S-so I am left to do as I please now?" Her lips quivered slightly as she regained herself slowly from madness and motioned her hands to one of the concealed blades she hid on her person. "What good is it to be alive if I am unable to kill the fuckers who have wronged me..." Her hand withdrew the knife and gripped it tightly as she pushed her self off the ground and sat back onto her knees and positioned them.

"Even that rat bastard can defeat me now and never mind that Sand bitch." Both her hands gripped the handle and hosted it to her stomach. "A-and I will be dammed if I give those leaf bastards the satisfaction of capturing me." Her normally firm hands shook as she rationalized what she was about to do. "I'll just..." Her low voice trailed off as she readied the blade to meet her, a faint smile spread across her face. "END THIS SHIT!" She shouted with the only sounds that followed being the slow pitter patter of blood staining the earth.

"Urghh." Her voice horsed as a decent amount of blood choked its way out of her mouth and coursed down her chin to join the drops of blood that flowed from her shaking blood covered hands.

Her brown eyes remained widened as Tayuya slowly looked down to what she had done. The knife lay engulfed in her body and blood steadily flowed from the horizontal stab, it wasn't as deep as a stab as she had wanted and for that she blamed her self for being weak and yielding to the pain to stop early. She watched the blood flow out from her and her vision blurred from the blood lose as she pulled the knife only to see another surge of blood exit the wound.

"I always knew you were devoted to lord Orochimaru but that you were this helpless with out him surprises me Tayuya." Kabuto's voice came from the tree line as Tayuya raised her head to meet his with out uttering a response. "You should know Tayuya that you actually do have enough worth to him that it is necessary for you to be killed and not left to live like Sasuke had declared. However there isn't a need for me to follow through with it now is there, fair well Tayuya." Giving the redhead a slight bow as he turned back into the woods to leave her to her death.

"B-bastard..." Tayuya choked out as her gaze fell to the soil before her. It was good enough to die peacefully in the unconscious state that was soon coming. She could only watch as her vision faded slowly until she saw nothing and felt her body shift forward.

*Thud*

**_Ending notes:Didnt think I could do that to Tayuya myself and the result surprised me._**


	6. Bitter Sweet Melody

**A/C:Fast on this latest chapter, hope it hasnt affected quality. On a completly unrelated note I am looking for a bater who actually has an interest in the story.**

* * *

"_It has been over a full year since that day I lay in the forest holding my wound as I bled to death. Over one full year since that senile bastard Korijo came to my side once more and prevented me from bleeding to death. His hand placed over my wound to keep my life's blood from spilling further, I was not conscious enough to stop him but conscious enough to know someone was intervening. Yet once again they heal me and bring me back to health against my will though this time it was the hag who healed me with Iwa healing genjutsu, guess they weren't bull shitting about being former shinobi after all._

_When I look back at it I am over whelmed by the irony of the situation. The first time I lay dying surrounded by my own blood I fought harder through pain and suffering to live then anything else in my life, curse branding excluded. And the second time I lay dying surrounded by my own blood I was the one who did it out of weakness...theres too much irony in fucking life._

_And so with the emptiness of my life, and with the agreement I was forced into by my new senile guardians who would know me as "the weakest person they have ever met." if I attempted suicide once more I am left with my final mission given by the Uchiha so many nights before, the mission to rot in a third rate cesspool of filth and cry on my neighbors shoulders, to live as an incomplete shinobi useless to any master who didn't have a perverse mind, yes I am succeeding in this vile mission all too well._

_The Takahashi's have taken me in as their long lost sons daughter and presented me as such to the town. I have a new name now to veil my identity...Camilla...of all the ridiculous facades to be dubbed so. There were times when I mused at that idea but my father was dead, I had watched him burn after all and by all accounts he was no great shinobi as the Takahashi's talk about their son at our evening meals._

_Since being taken in I have met only one person worth mention in this whole Kami forsaken town. Again it is ironic to be none other then that blind girl who I almost impaled that faithful night so long ago. This frail child, this Chinosei befriended me after hearing me practice my flute in the woods one day. Ironic again that her eyes may be shit but her ears made of gold to hear me such a distance from town where even I thought I was secluded and safe. My shock when seeing her was a testament to the weakness that had grown into me over the few months I lived there...peacefully and for a second time I contemplated taken her young life for by my honor nobody lives to tell the tale of my melody of death...save for the rat bastard who tarnished my spotless record with disgrace and pity. But this girl does not find my melodies frightening at all. It was her who convinced me to play for the towns children which I cautiously accepted since to them it was a time to gather and have fun but to me it was a way to vent my emotions with out fear of being mocked out right since to these ignorant peasants I was entertaining them, their penitences of coin were useless to me._

_Sometimes I wish I had died during my battle with the rat, and sometimes I wish I had died when I tried to take my own life that night but lately...lately I have had thoughts that maybe this existence isn't so hor..." _

"Cami-chan!" A small girls voice snapped Tayuya from her writing in the town square forcing her to pull from her deep thoughts. "Are you going to play for us today Cami-chan?."

"y-yeah just give me a damn minute will you!" Tayuya snapped back as she placed her diary into a bag she used to carry excess items around with her.

"Okay Cami-chan!, Minoto and Itsuki are getting the rest of the gang right now so you should have some time to set up!"

Tayuya nodded slowly to the girls words and watched as she cheerfully skipped past the villagers. Tayuya had learned the girl was not normal the day when she found her practicing in the woods. It was one thing to hear the sounds of music miles away but another for the small child to recognize her as the intruder who had broken into her house. While the small girls eyes could not see faces or the world she could see chakra which was enough for such a frail girl to survive in this town.

"Cami-chan!, Were ready!" Chinosei shouted loudly while dozens of poor and middle class children gathered around her and slowly clambered down to a silent hush as Tayuya eyed each of them slowly before drawing out her simple looking bronze flute and bringing it to her lips and began playing a few slow soft notes which drew her audience in before changing the tune into a spiral continuum of notes which caused the children to cheer and their parents and fellow villagers to gather around for the performance.

Closing her brown eyes she ignored and aired out their noise and focused on her melody feeling the tunes vibrations pulsate from her lips and tingle all over her body as each note was created and resonated with her soul. The melody itself became the manifestation of her soul as it was bared to the ignorant villagers.

Outside the village a pair of travelers made their way into the hustle and bustle of the small rural town and proceeded to pass by the villagers only stopping momentarily to view one of the various shop stands that line the main street.

"Ouu ouu Shikamaru look at this!" A young blond girl with a long pony tail shouted out to her travelmate.

"Hmm? That jewelry is a rip off you know that Ino, save your money for something useful." Shikamaru responded coldly as he looked away and kept walking.

"Hey just because your in a hurry doesn't mean I need to be too!" Ino yelled back catching the attention of a few villagers who were instantly disgusted by the shinobi pair as soon as they saw their head bands.

"These vendors are just trying to rip you off is all I am saying but if you want to waste your money then go ahead. Shikamaru waved her off as he continued walking. "The less time we spend here the better, this place isn't known for its hospitality to shinobi so don't expect the deal of a life time."

"Well lazy pants I want to look around and shop cause it isn't everyday we come so far out of the village that isn't on a mission that endangers our lives. So I wanna enjoy it!"

The girl Ino noticed a visible tension on her companions body as she spoke those words to him and instantly regretted it.

"I-im sorry Shikamaru I didn't mean it like that." She said waving both hims up at him.

"Then how did you mean it?, you know I stopped taking missions for the village after what happened last time and its that reason because of those "life threatening missions" were going out into the middle of no where for this trip." When she didn't respond he looked down at the gravel beneath his saddles. "I'm sorry Ino I didn't mean to snap like that with you..

"I-its okay Shikamaru, me and Azuma know how much it troubles you and we both don't blame you for what happened."

"Maybe you don't openly but the Hokage does and by proxie so does a lot of the village." When she didn't respond this time he obligately walked up to comfort his former teammate. "Don't worry about it Ino I am fine with the Hokages decision you know that so tell you what here is my portion of the money." He paused as he handed the wallet over to her. "Buy my mom something she would like, I do such a crappy job at that as you know."

Happy to be giving the chance to change subjects Ino quickly accepted the offer. "Y-yeah Shikamaru I will do that but where are you going to be?"

"I will go on ahead and take a nap at the flower patch and wait for you there, you gonna be okay on your own?"

"Geeze Shikamaru of course I am going to be okay. Like anyone is gonna mug me with my sixteen hit combo?" Pumping an arm for good measure to convince him.

"Yeah your right but your nagging would probably scare the purse snatcher away before you pummel him to death."

"Aww now your just making fun of me Shikamaru!" Giving him an annoyed pout.

"Heh yeah well I will meet you there in the field when your done." With that Shikamaru turned around and waved with out looking at her, last thing he wanted was her to see the miserable look on his face.

Dejected Ino waved back slightly knowing he wouldn't see her._"Damn it Shikamaru you don't have to hold in all your pain, its okay to share it with me once and awhile when it becomes too much." _

Leaving Ino behind Shikamaru paced on with both hands in his pockets ignoring the villagers around him who were gossiping about him being a ninja and that stares that followed. No sooner had he made it to the middle of the town he abruptly stopped as he realized the faint sound of flute music playing.

Turning to the direction of the music he could tell it was a street over.

"...Theres no way." He muttered to himself redirecting himself forward and continued walking in his original direction until a few familiar notes peeked his ears causing him to stop again. "Damn it!"

Shikamaru grunted as he turned and walked between an alley way towards the source of the music until he came out the other sideto see a large group of children and a few older residents gathered around a tree listening intently to the melody.

One by one he walked passed the stationary villagers as he continued to walk forward to reach his goal.

"Damn it Shikamaru you already know theres no way it would be that troublesome girl!" He rationalized with himself as he pressed forward until he came to a complete stop with in the crowd.

The music came to slow stop as the song finished. Tayuya removed her lips from the flute with a small satisfied smile as the crowd and children cheered and clapped her on, a few people even dropped coins at her feet in a jester of good will but the former Sound kunoichi was far too proud to accept such penitences for herself. No she would save them to treat Chinosei instead of pulling ryo from her own pocket. Speaking of which the girl was first in line smiling and cheering for her with out a care in the world beside her friends and fellow villagers to whom she nodded to as she swallowed her pride and gracefully accepted the coins as she held the bile from spitting in their faces.

"That was great Cami-chan!" Chinosei shouted loudly.

"Yeah really awesome!" Another child added on.

"Truly a great performance Camilla, Korijo and Inoue must be so proud to have such a talented grand daughter." A middle aged housewife said as she bowed to her.

As Tayuya bowed slightly to her audience she noticed that over time it had become bigger. Originally it had only been Chinosei with her gang of friends but steadily even the grown ups attended her performances and she made sure to thank them respectfully even if they were worthless pion's.

It was then as she looked at her crowd she noticed him staring dumbfounded at her. Him, one of the single banes of her existences looking straight at her confused and awe stricken. Him the chunin bastard who lead the team that annihilated the Sound four and left her semi crippled with in spitting distance of her.

_"IT'S FUCKING HIM!"_ Her mind shouted before her body to physically react. _"IT'S FUCKING HIM!"_

_

* * *

_


	7. Confrontation

A/C: Been awhile coming but would you believe me if I said I forgot my password for abit ". But regardless I was able to finish this chapter before the big move outta state which has consumed ALOT of my free thoughts sadly. However I havent given up on this story. I spent more time then usual making sure I "got it right" if you know what I mean but I guess I wont know till it is reviewed. Certain things I liked and others I didnt. Please comment and review as they are greatly appretiated and give me an ego boost to continue.

Time itself slowed down between the two shinobi as villagers began to disperse nearby in slow motion. Both their eyes transfixed on each other as if entranced by the others existence. In Tayuya's case there was no resistance to the thought that he was the same person who had disgraced her so a year before but the only question was for her to prove her identity to him for his eyes still were trying to grasp the idea that she was the same person he had fought.

"You...your that girl..." Shikamaru blankly stated with no emotion in his voice causing Tayuya's eyes to perk with realization.

"_S-shit the bastard already knows but I still have time to use my flute!"_ Tayuya quickly thought as she squeezed the instrument tighter with her hand only to stop the moment she remembered the surroundings around her and the people who would die in their violent exchange._ "Why should these worthless pion's matter, their nothing!" Regriping her flute with conviction before feeling small fingers grip at her leg. "The bastards jutsu already?!"_ Tayuya's mind screamed as she quickly glared down to see Chinosei inches away from her face.

"Cami-chan are you okay?, you haven't moved in a long time." The young child's voice filled with worry.

"Cami-chan?" Shikamaru's voiced said in a low whisper out loud as he raised a confused brow.

Slowly looking up from the girl before her Tayuya glared up at her chunin rival with a small snicker as she took hold of the girls shoulder in a reassuring way to Chinosei but for Shikamaru it was a hostage situation.

"Whats wrong rat?, looks like you just seen a ghost." Her eyes were kept sharp and even to meet his stare as he readied himself to preform a Shadow Possession jutsu.

"Hey ninja step aside, your in my way scum!" A brawny construction worker shouted as he pushed the chunin aside. "Whats the matter never seen a minstrel before?"

Shikamaru's eyes quickly darted to the man with sharp intensity causing the older man to back off from him surprised. Before Shikamaru waited for a reaction from the pedestrian his eyes widened that he had taken his sight off the Sound shinobi who no longer was in front of him.

His eyes quickly scanned the town only just catching the glint of red dash into a nearby alleyway.

Startling the gathering of pedestrians Shikamaru lunged for the alley way in an attempt to catch up with his target before she could escape for good.

"_I wont get another chance to avenge my friends if I just let you go!"_ He inwardly shouted as he chased her from alley way to alley way.

With only the use of one leg Tayuya's speed was greatly reduced, a fact she was well aware of as she compensated for her right leg by having her crutch dig into the ground to stabilize her momentum as she braced for the landing on her left leg and poll vaulted forward. She might not have had her original speed but she had learned to know this small town with great familiarity so she capitalized off that to maximize her escape.

It irritated her greatly to feel the chunnin was almost on her heels the entire time as she exited the boarders and made it to the tree line.

"Persistent bastard!" She roared as she looked over her shoulder to see the expressionless chunnin trailing a few steps back. Tayuya quickly reached into her carrying bag and took out two kunai and flung them dead center at the chunnin forcing him to dodge and end his pursuit as she landed to the forest floor stumbling a few steps in the process as she regained her self. Running had never felt so taxing before.

Shikamaru stood at the top of a branch staring down at her noticing the difficulty she was having moving as well as the object she had thrown at him then watched as she withdrew her flute and readied it for combat.

"You finally decided to use a more practical weapon?" Shikamaru stated with a small grin as he plucked her kunai out of the near by tree. "Guess your not as persistently thick headed as before."

Tayuya's eyes widened at the insult. He never insulted her outright like that a year ago.

"What was that you bastard, are you daring to fucking mock me?!" Tayuya screamed as she dug the crutch into the soft dirt and balanced her self to face him.

"Mock you?, no I am just stating you must have lost confidence in your unbeatable songs. You play it for kids and paupers now even?"

Tayuya grit her teeth and clenched the flute with her right hand as she brought it to her lips..

"Bastard, don't talk about shit you know nothing about!" She spat swinging her head a bit side to side. "You wont think so low of my flute once I use it to gouge out your shitty eyes!"

As a response Tayuya received both the silence of the chunnin and the seriousness of his stare as he readied her own kunai as well as a handful of his own to trow at her.

Shikamaru let fly the kunai in a horizontal sweep at her direction forcing Tayuya to dodge them to her left dragging her crutch along the grassy dirt in doing so only to be paralyzed by a familiar sensation causing her eyes to widen.

"Success." A figure announced as it walked out of a nearby clearing of grass to reveal himself as the true Shikamaru as his clone puffed out of existence.

"Y-you bastard, a diversion?!" Tayuya roared as she struggled in his shadow bind.

"The first move is always a feint remember?" Slowly Shikamaru walked towards her while keeping guard of any sudden attacks.

"Fuck off you worthless shit, you just got fucking lucky but don't get too big of a head or you will have it cut off scum!"

Ignoring her Shikamaru advanced to a sudden stop. "Luck had nothing to do with it." He said in a low calm tone as he eyed her venom filled glare evenly.

"What was that scum?"

"You say it was luck but you are wrong, I simply used a better strategy then before." His normally bored face showed smalled sparks of disdain as he held her firmly in place with his shadow.

"And what the fuck is that bastard?, chase me and mock me like a piece of shit?" She spat as she forced her self against his hold.

"Your strategy was to flee from me until you could find the most beneficial position to mount an effective offense against me where as my strategy was to stall you by igniting your anger making you sloppy and become more focused on me then your surroundings and current tactical position."

Tayuya remained silent to his calm yet serious tone and demeanor.

"If an enemy has a temper seek to exploit it since it causes them to do rash actions, sloppy actions."

"Who the fuck are you to talk to me like that you bastard?!. The bitch saves your worthless ass and all of a sudden you think your so high and fucking mighty?!"

Ignoring her loud swearing once more he continued.

"The fact you didn't even notice I had used a diversion on you so early shows your carelessness." He paused looking down at her legs."The loss of your speed to your disadvantage gave me the chance to have the real me rush ahead of you while my clone followed behind."

The chunnins shadow possession forced Tayuya to look at her own leg in disgust.

"It seems Temari was right and you wouldn't be keeping the use of your leg after all." His bored face at her disfigurement caused the red heads anger to violently flare.

"What was that you fucking son of a bitch, You dare bring up that useless sand whore's name for what she did to me?!." Tayuya roared causing Shikamaru to tighten his bind on her. "Don't you dare look down on me you son of a bitch, I am still a shinobi by trade and I can still kill you!"

Shikamaru soaked in her threat for a moment before narrowing his stare. "I am sure if I give someone as troublesome as you the chance you will follow through but things are very different from before."

"And how is that rat?" Tayuya mocked with a twisting venom in her words.

"This time I know what you are capable of as well as I have you at a physical advantage you cant compensate for." Shikamaru paused seeing her grind her teeth in rage. "Also my goal isn't to stall you like before."

"Then what is it rat?" Tayuya somehow suppressed the raging desire to yell and swear at him for getting cocky at her disability.

"My goal is to kill you." He stated flatly with little to no emotion in his tone which momentarily shook Tayuya before she regained her self.

"Kill me huh?, when did you start to harbor such dark thoughts?" She asked with a small twisted smile.

"Theres nothing dark about them really, I am simply going to avenge my team so there is no hate involved."

Her smile grew wider at his words causing his facial features to grow irritated.

"Killing with out hate or emotion is a feat an inexperienced trash shinobi like your self couldn't possibly have and besides that your team got killed off?" Her sinister grin growing wider by the second.

It was the rats turn to be insulted and mocked as he gripped his fist.

"Thats right, almost all of them died that day on that mission."

"The burden of the dead under your command becomes the weight placed on the back of the living huh rat?" Tayuya mocked with a smile.

"Yeah thats exactly how it is and yourself?" His voiced replied low with the thoughts of his fallen teammates fresh in his mind.

"What the hell are you talking about scum?"

"We retrieved the bodies of your teammates after the mission, you were the only one to survived so don't you feel the weight?"

"Your kidding me right bastard?"

"No."

"Baka, they fought their fights and had their graves made for them due to your Sand friends interference so why should I carry their weight like a loser like you? Besides you must have been so disappointed when my corpse wasn't among them but ohh wait thats right my corpse wasn't there because you decided to show me pity and allowed me to live a life of disgrace so why don't you tell me if it burns seeing me right now you filthy rat while your friends rot the the fucking ground with mine!"

Shikamaru had no reply other then silence to her spiteful speech. She was right, the decision he made that day to spare bloodshed turned out to be one of his biggest regrets as his friends lost their lives one by one before his very eyes where as she his greatest opponent was regrouping to plot to have her revenge to kill more of his allies.

"It was a mistake that I will fix today." Shikamaru turned his right hand into a fist to mimic how Tayuya held her flute then raised his hand level to his right eye forcing Tayuya to mimic him perfectly as her flute end was brought pointing over her shaking pupil.

"Y-you wouldn't dare b-bastard!" Tayuya immediately lost her amusement and tried effortlessly to pull her hand from her face.

Shikamaru didn't respond to her as he focused his chakra to restrain her as she struggled to break from her bind.

Sweat began to form on Tayuya's brow as her hand trembled and shook as her own flute neared her eye socket.

"Y-you know this isnt something a shinobi can do with out hate." Tayuya coaxed trying to not let her nervousness show.

Shikamaru only tightened his fist causing her to do the same and moved his hand forward causing her brown eyes to widen with freight before he brought it back stopping just before her shaking pupil.

In the moments that passed neither shinobi said a word. The thought of a wailing in pain petrified Tayuya as she bled and screamed burned into both of their minds.

Slowly Shikamaru lowered his right hand to his side as Tayuya mirrored him with visible sweat forming around her forehead.

"Why didn't you do it you bastard?" Tayuya asked as they both stood motionless matching each others stance. "If your goal is to kill me you shouldn't care how its done."

"I didn't do it mainly because if our positions were reversed you would have done that to me and besides since your a girl I don't want to make you suffer when you die." He stated almost sympathetically.

As Shikamaru ended talking Tayuya felt something forming at her feet, forcing herself to look down she saw the shadow hands take shape and turn to move up her body. She HATED the feel of the ethereal appendages crawl over here skin and bind around her. The feeling disturbed her to no end since it felt human with force and motion yet light like a feather blowing in the wind over her.

Tayuya hadn't been aware that her curse seal began to activate and spread over her body to try and dispel the binding that wrapped around her.

"D-Dammit the seal!" Tayuya's mind screamed as the ink markings fully spread over her body. _"It might be enough to survive this pricks jutsu but then Orochimaru will know I am still alive and have me killed or worse..."_

Before the former Sound nin could weigh her options she felt the quick jerk of her neck as the shadow fingers took hold and gripped forcing her to grit her teeth from pain.

"Still up to the same tricks huh?" Shikamaru called out catching the red heads attention as she tried to grapple with the dark appendages. "After the retrieval mission Hokage-samma and the sannin Jiraiya preformed autopsies on your team mates and debriefed me and Kiba on the results."

Tayuya partly listened to her enemy as she struggled to force her chakra to break his bind on her.

"That mark on your body is called a Curse Seal and it is only received by Orochimaru's most capable subordinates. Its benefits are increased chakra and physical strength as well as the ability to transform the recipient into a monstrous freak show when it is fully activated." He paused noticing her undivided attention after the "freak show" remark.

"The only visible drawback is it makes you more primal and violent causing you to make rash mistakes such as becoming over confidant and not retreating when the situation is not in your favor. Sound familiar?"

Her temper flared as she released her chakra to force the fingers to detach from her exposed throat.

"I don't run away you bastard!" Tayuya screamed as she forced her body forward towards the expressionless chunnin. "I don't run away and I don't ever give up, I complete my kami damned missions no matter what the fucking odds are so that blasted piece of shit seal has nothing to do with my nindo!"

"Your nindo huh?, sounds troublesome to me since it defies rational thought but I guess thats to be expected from an irrational woman like you. And besides from what they discovered the seal is used to suppress the hosts will to that of Orochimaru so what you think your calling is your nindo or will is really just the subjected wishes of your master so if thats right your no different then a brainwashed pawn on his shoji board."

That was the final straw.

"I'm not his fucking pawn any more!" Tayuya screamed as her curse seal sent her into level two changing her pale skin a dark brown as her hair extended as is making room for the demonic horns that grew within an instant increasing her chakra output to triple that of what she was a moment before.

"Stop calling us fucking pawns you bastard!" Her left leg broke the possession binding and took a stomp forward. "Were shinobi like you!" Tayuya forcibly dragged her lifeless right leg forward with her right arm. "No, were better then play piece of shit shinobi trash like your village!" Tayuya ignored the strangle jutsu that still persisted to strangle her throat as she marched onward to the chunnin's surprise. "We don't fucking play grab ass in the woods for a fucking reject who wants nothing to do with our village like you scum!" Tayuya raised her flute nearing to strike the black haired Nara in the skull. "And you don't know a dammed thing about me you piece of fucking sh-" Her hateful voice was immediately silenced by the immense pressure of the strangle jutsu gripped and forced its suffocating binding hands around her throat almost wringing her off the ground.

"You know what Sound girl I take it back." Shikamaru said calmly as her opponents body was paralyzed with his strengthened possession jutsu and strangle jutsu given their close proximity. "Its not the seals fault for your brash actions, you just have a crappy personality." Her eyes widened immediately to his words as he forced the deadlock she held on her flute with to open causing it to fall the the ground before her reached her arms to her neck and gripped her throat choking her with a combined number of four arms.

Tayuya's body jerked uncontrollably as her foe squeezed and choked her relentlessly causing her head to tilt backwards to stare up into the tree line above before her vision began to blur as her eyes began to roll back.

Shikamaru began to sweat to his surprise as he throttled his opponent while maintaining the possession jutsu and strangle jutsu which was doubling his own efforts. The act of binding and attacking at the same time was for more taxing then he had presumed giving his fathers effortless examples of how it is suppose to be done in their training. Regardless of the immense effort he was putting in to keep her in submission he took no joy from what he was doing. Strangling a defenseless woman to death went against every fiber of his being but convinced himself that she was different, she wasn't by any means defenseless and she deserved to die...right?

Both of Tayuya's arms managed to grip at her captors wrists as she was choked from his and his shadows thumbs nearly crushing the air passageways of her throat. Tayuya coughed and choked saliva onto his arms as she gasped for air helplessly. To her cries of suffering and pain he would only squint his eyes and shake his head in some childish attempt to block it out.

"Y-your n-no man r-rat..." Her horsed voice declared causing his hands to loosen their grip immediately.

Shikamaru opened his eyes and stared at her as she had her head tilted back to the side with saliva trailing down the edges of her lips, her face slightly purple from the lack of air.

"I-i wonder w-what your d-dead comrades would t-think t-to see you n-now..." Her voice trailed off between gasps and wheezes as she formed a little snicker as she breathed heavily in from the reprieve before his grip tightened forcing her head to reel back and the air flow to cease from progressing to her heaving lungs.

"Don't say shit like that you troublesome bitch, i-im doing this to avenge them!" Shikamaru yelled as his voice cracked and broke with the image of his dead and dying comrades fresh in his mind.

"Chouji, Neji, Akamaru and Lee...you all trusted me to lead you in success, in a mission completed with no errors and I failed you all...f-forgive me...forgive me." His mind called out as fresh tears formed and rolled down his cheeks.

Tayuya's yellow eyes watched the chunnin as he cried and choked her, it was pathetic in so many ways. Both for her and her opponent.

As her eyes rolled back one last time the blackness drained from her eyes and the yellow turned back into their original brown color the curse seal slowly reverted from her body and drew back into the marking on the center of the back of her neck. She made several gasping sounds as her body stopped resisting and went limp from the chunnins grip which loosened once he realized her body had reverted into her earlier form. He released her grip slowly and pulled her arms back to himself causing the sound nin's limp body to bob forward and lean against his chest.

As her body began to slid down off him Shikamaru quickly wrapped an arm around her lower back catching Tayuya's body causing her head to rest just below his shoulder. With unsteadly hands Shikamru reached his right hand up to her throat and pressed two fingers to check for a pulse as he tears stopped slowly.

He waited.

And waited

And waited...


	8. Where's Theres Smoke

Shadows of trees warp and twist around into the back of Tayuya's vision as she races through the never ending tree line. Her foot steps above a whisper and the air around her is that of a hunter sated with its long awaited kill.

_"The pineapple head was clever but not enough."_ That thought or something moderately generalized to it fills her mind as she rushes forward to regroup with her team.

Despite her confidence and the unmistakable grin bearing her face the forest around her feels eeiry distracting.

Her pace slows as Tayuya becomes more self aware of this and a sense of unnerving over takes over her body and it becomes harder to breath slowly.

_"The hell?"_ That thought floats in her contentiousness only to be broken by the breaching of light as she exits the forest into a wide open clearing marked with the familiar scent of fresh blood in the air.

To the distance a lone figure stands next to the purpose of their mission, the barrel containing Uchiha Sasuke, that figure is immediately marked in her mind as Kimimaro whose imaged had been burned into her long ago.

"You are late Tayuya." He states in a neutral tone as he faces her with bloody bone in hand.

"He was decent trash but trash none the less." She retorted as the horizon glowed with twilight colors. _"...It shouldn't be this dark so early."_ Her mind mentally noted as she cautiously approached her former leader.

"Is that so?." Kimimaro didn't pose it as a question and Tayuya knew this, he never showed any interest in the dealings of the Sound Four outside his direct orders to interact with them from his master.

"Yeah, wheres that orange assholes corpse?" Tayuya immediately changed subjects due to Kimimaro's sensitivity to the topic of trash.

"To your left Tayuya." Kimimaro didn't point it out for her as he turned his back and placed a hand on the container.

It took a moment but her sharp eyes scanned the mangled body of the fool who slapped his ass to her as he ran off like a retard, she took notice of the large amount of stab wounds which almost hollowed out his back to the other end.

Kimimaro turned his head slightly to see her examine the corpse.

"The fool thought he saw an opening to retrieve the vassal after he realized it was suicide to confront me directly."

Tayuya only nodded as she walked to the downed nin's corpse to spit on him before giving his torso a good hard kick, she didn't need to hear the rest and he didn't need to ask it.

"Thats the last of the trash then." Tayuya heard her self say in a detached tone as the air grew thiner and thiner. _"Why is it so hard to fucking breath?!"_ Her mind screamed.

"No, the last can to be sorted is you Tayuya." Kimimaro said calmly as Tayuya turned her self with wide eyes to him in mild shock before a single bone bullet flew through her forehead piercing the hair parting which regularly stayed between her eyes then exited the back of her skull followed by small jets of blood spraying out and staining the grass.

Tayuya's body jarred slightly before falling back on the orange nin's body slumping over his, her head laying inside his gutted back wound causing half her shocked face to be covered with his blood.

"Your decent for trash Tayuya, but your trash none the less." Kimimaro spoke as her eyes dilated and light faded before her.

Her brown eyes shot open as she suddenly gasped for air shocking the sitting Shikamaru in front of her. She took in deep heavy breaths not noticing her surroundings as she choked and felt strong resistance as she squinted her eyes and tried to grab her throat but couldn't...but why?

"T-the hell?" Tayuya said aloud as she opened her eyes to see the metal wired bindings that strapped her to the trunk of a tree high above the forest floor, it didn't take long for her to look forward to see her enemy still looking at her slightly amazed.

Both shinobi stared at each other for a moment unable to form a proper sentence until Tayuya suddenly jerked and coughed uncontrollably causing Shikamaru to lean forward with slight concern.

"W-what the hell..." She began between coughs. "Is wrong with you, if your going to kill me then just ki-kill me ass hole!" She began choking violently on her own saliva as she gasped for more air. "D-don't fuck with me like I am some toy!" Shikamaru could feel the venom in her tone as the last few words came out.

The chunnin leaned back against the tree and looked away from her as she struggled with her bindings and choked as he scratched his hair slightly. "It's not like I didn't try to kill you its just." He signed for a moment. "It was just too damn troublesome."

"Don't give me that shit, last thing I remember was I couldn't breath at all and you had every chance to squeeze the life out of me once I blacked out." Tayuya lowered her tone as her throat throbbed with pain and voice horsed from the strain to yell and scream.

"I kinda did for a moment." The chunin responded with a disgusted tone which quieted his captive. "I had suffocated you and you had stopped breathing for awhile..." Shikamaru announced in an emotionless tone.

"If thats the case what the fuck I doing here still?" Her harsh voice barely above a whisper.

"I thought killing an enemy to avenge my comrades would feel...different." He scratched his brow slightly.

"Ohh what you expected avenging your comrades to feel liberating, to feel like the burden of their deaths has been lessoned?" Tayuya questioned before another violent burst of coughing which she forced to subside. "You expected my death to free your continence of the guilt of their deaths?" He didn't respond and only stared at his right hand which trembled slightly which only angered the red head more.

"You have never killed anyone before have you rat, or at least not directly." Her eyes boring into him.

"I haven't killed any one...period." He wasn't lying, she could tell that much by his tone.

Suppressing the thought of taking another cheap shot at his fallen team Tayuya forced her self to ask the important question. "So what now then rat, if you wont kill then where does that leave this situation?"

Shikamaru raised his head to the sky to see the clouds float through the patches of leafs and branches considering his response for a moment. "I took your flute and your personal possessions." He stated still staring up into the dark blue sky as the sunset turned it an orange glow. "It was a real drag trying to figure out why your book had blank pages in it but then I remembered that guy Kabuto with his ninja cards and how he made them appear blank." Tayuya tensed for a moment then relaxed, the flute for a moment she could go on with out but if he knows how to make the writing appear...

"I couldn't force you to unseal it while you were incapacitated so I figure I will ask you nicely now." His gaze shifting back to hers with his constant bored face.

"Fuck you." She responded finally able to breath normally as she relaxed against the bark of the tree, he didn't have it in him to force her, if he did he would have tried to by now.

"The current course of action is for me to either wait for Ino to find us since I have been missing from that village for so long or for you to escape from your bindings and we fight all over again." He sighed at the thought. "Regardless it is going to be a troublesome day."

Tayuya controlled her breathing to the point it no longer caused a high amount of pain to her throat. "How long have I been out shit head?" She asked ignoring him for the moment.

Surprised Shikamaru took a moment to consider it. "Bout fifteen minutes since you blacked out."

Tayuya nodded to her self as she looked over her legs. "And you said you suffocated me earlier right shit head?" She didn't hide her anger, her disgust or her over all 'I will fucking kill you for that' tone.

Confused by her questions he simply answered to see where the red head was going with all this. "I gave you CPR." He stated simply.

Tayuya's head shot immediately up with wide eyes. "You put your filthy lips on mine?!" She screamed loudly as only she could.

"N-no I just pressed my hands on your chest hoping you would breath again." Waving his hands in front of him in an irritated manner in his defense.

"Why go though all that trouble if your just going to have me killed by someone else.?" Tayuya yelled with disgust.

"Were not a bunch of cold hearted killers though I cant assure your safety given our nations stance against the Sound village." Shikamaru stated not bothering to hide his growing annoyance with her.

"I want to make this perfectly clear to you ass hole." She began in a venomous tone. "I am not going to become your villages prisoner, I am not going to rot in a fucking cell for the rest of my life while your 'good and honest shinobi' shove my head in a fucking bucket full of water or shit as they demand the same answers day in and day out and I most certainly would not waste my time having trivial banter with you if it didn't serve a purpose like this!" She shouted at the end as the wires holding her to the tree loosened and dropped freeing her to stand up quickly and stance off against her captor.

Shikamaru couldn't help but grin at her resourcefulness as he was now was standing eying her defensive stance. She put her weight on her left leg and bent her knee forward as if to spring at him at a moments notice. Her right arm gripped the side of the trunk balancing her weight evenly through out her body.

"I will kill you with my bare fucking hands if I have too before that Ino bitch of yours ever gets here!" She declared as is daring him to make the first move. But he didn't.

"Whats wrong rat?" The redhead taunted but received no immediate response from the chunnin as he tilted his head up to the sky. "Hey I am talking to you bastard!"

"Hey...do you smell that?" Shikamaru asked surprising the red head as she remained in her defensive position.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She barked from across him.

"If you just be quiet and smell then you would know."

Enraged by his reply Tayuya forced her self to ignore telling him off and took a deep breath and sniffed the air. "Smoke?" She said aloud with mild shock.

"Yeah and its coming from the direction of the village we were in." His face becoming grave and serious as the realization of danger set it.

Tayuya checked herself over to make sure she wasn't under the influence of a genjutsu however much to her disappointment that was not the case. She grunted aloud to this fact and what it meant.

"Shit!" She yelled to her self as she turned from her adversary and limped in the direction of her village...her home.

"T-thats it, your just going to leave our situation where it is?" Shikamaru called out to her in a more surprised tone than anything else.

Tayuya did not stop limping forward as she called back "You may not have a stake in some shitty backwater cesspool but I do and that means more to me then being covered in your blood...that can wait till after."

Shikamaru only watched her as she forced her self on before resolving himself.

"My stake is my friend Ino who still might be there and besides you need this stuff right?" He waited till she turned around before throwing her bag and flute taking her a little off balance as she caught them then stared at him blankly.

"...Why help me?"

"A lot of things have changed since that mission and I have changed a lot too but I still cant turn my back on innocent people in danger or loudmouth girls who need help."

"Then don't slow me down any more trash." Tayuya snapped her head away from him causing her hair to swing in the growing breeze as she bite her thumb and summoned only a single Doki to her aid which Shikamaru immediate recognized it as the large one with the spiked bones attached to its wrist that she usually employed as her defense monstrosity.

"You know I was planning to use this new trick to crush you back there before you used your shadow shit on me." Tayuya said aloud to him with a bitter smirk.

Bringing the flute her lips she issued her demon its orders causing him to kneel down to her and scoop her up with its massive left arm similar to how a lion would snatch a cub.

In a few moments she was nestled on the joint of his under arm with her legs casually dangling off as more notes followed causing the arm to bring her close to the behemoths chest and cradled her closely with its massive muscles.

Shikamaru could only stare at the simple complexity of her strategy, it was a very basic idea of using her summoning to be her movement to compliment her both physically and strategically yet the precision it would take to perfectly order her creature so it did not involuntarily crush her was amazing. She had to be one of the most skilled musician nins in the world to confidently stake her life on her ability.

"I'm glad you weren't able too then." Shikamaru called out to her as he stood a decent distance from the beast. "How do I know you wont try and blind side me with it?" To those words the red head could only smile as her flute grace her lips slightly.

"Simple idiot, you don't."

* * *

**_AC:Been a long time but this chapter is done. Though I must admit it is much shorter then I had once presumed it to be but alas that just means more for the next installment._**

**_On another note I appologise for the lateness but I have not had any time to write since the move and the time i have had either were spent playing MANY of the new game titles that have recently come out or just unmotivatedness on my part. This chapter had actually been VERY close to done for awhile but I simply wasnt able to finalize it._**

**_On another note the next chapter of Cursed Death is underway(no ETA)._**

**_Thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing(seriously I need more blood XD) and I hope you will enjoy the next chapter as much as I enjoyed their(Shikamaru and Tayuya's) bickering. _**


	9. There's Loss

_AC/ Strath here again back from my unoffcial hiatus. As some might know I have been out of state for my sisters wedding leaving me with no way to work on my stories and in my opinion it was for the better since it gave me time to constantly think about both stories as well as the next one under way. I am proude to say that since this is the single longest delay between chapters to date I made sure to make this chapter much longer and really took time with it. Next chapter from Cursed Death will be out momentarily as I had intended for this to be a duel release. I hope everyone will be looking towards that with much antisipation._

Also as an added bonus I am going to offcially annaunce a side project me and my bro been working on for quite a while now known as the Tayuya's Therapy Sessions which a lighter side comic where poor Tayuya survives her grusome ordeal against Temari but now suffers from an INTENSE phobia of....you guessed it TREES! There are also other scetches and doodles both Naruto series related and not so if your interested check it out here at _.com/__ or search Tayuya Reina on Deviant Art. As allways enjoy and Comments and Reviews keep me alive and motivated!_

All along the way back to the village tree branches could be seen plummeting to the forest floor from the sheer force Tayuya's Doki used to increase its speed. This pace simply did not suit Shikamaru who was trailing further and further behind as he dodge the snapping branches as they snapped. He would have scolded her on it but he could tell the direness of the situation from her as she forced each note out which almost seemed to enrage her giant as it continued to push it self by her harsh notes.

A sharp note was heard from the flute forcing the large demon to make an abrupt stop as its momentum caused it to pass the intended location to stop forcing it to dig its right bladed fist into the trunk of a nearby tree to stop it from hurdling down to the forest floor. Shikamaru who's speed was far less then the massive Doki was able to stop on the branch above it and its cradled master.

"Whats up?" He asked not trying to hide his annoyance with her up to this point.

"You don't fucking smell that shit?!" She yelled back at him, her eyes filled with more rage then she possessed during their battle.

"I-its smoke right?" Shikamaru protested in defense as he was taken back by the seriousness of her face.

"Its more then then that you green horned bastard, thats burning flesh!" She screamed out before blowing more sharp notes into her flute causing her demon to swing off the tree and trample a path along the forest floor.

Trying his best the chunin dashed along the tree tops over her and her demon servant. Seeing the worry on her face he felt bad for chasing her so far out of the village in retrospect. But how was he to know that a deadly enemy he had fought would be committed to the safety of their fellow residence.

As both nins reached the clearing of trees that overlooked the village their pace had come to a complete stop. Tayuya who was the first to reach the location could only stare with widened eyes and quivering lower lip as she watched her new home , the whole village in a blaze of destruction and death. Houses that normally had singing birds perched on them now were skewered with flaming arrows. Streets that often had loud children playing carelessly in them were littered with the corpses of man, woman and child alike.

The former Sound nins shock was quickly replaced by rage as she saw one of the culprits of the attack follow a staggering old man out of his house and plunge a katana deep into his back before spitting on him and laughing as he died.

Shikamaru could only watch as her face twisted into furry before she issued orders to her behemoth causing him to leap into the air at the murderer and scream as her demon brought its massive bladed fist down on the man before he could pull the sword out to defend himself. As the dust faded from the landing of her doki Shikamaru could see the mangled body of the intruder almost crushed in half, he could only sigh at the thought if she had ever caught him in either of their battles using her summonings.

Satisfied with her work the Tayuya raised her head to meet the gathering intruders as they appeared along the various roof tops surprised to see a small frail girl riding on a massive demon who had just crushed one of their comrades. As she scanned over their increasing numbers she made sure to observe their clothing to discover who and where they were from.

Each of them wore the same jet black clad heavy leather outfits all with the same red linnings and strips at the ends of them. None of them wore insignia head bands that depicted an alliance to a village, their headbands however had their metal dyed red to fit their outfits which must have meant some kind of affiliation with something. Besides the jet black leather Tayuya could tell they had metal hidden over and under their clothing as added protection, see could only visually confirm such shielding for their legs and arms though she wouldn't be surprised if those spineless fuckers had chest armor under their get ups. She also took note of the the belts they all wore with kunai made ready for use as well as pouches with kami knows what in them. Besides the identical gear they all wore each member had a single red skull on their left shoulder with a single protruding horn on it.

"What the hell are you suppose to be freak?" One of black clad members called out to her as they encircled her.

"I'm your death you fucking bastards!" The former Sound nin screamed out to them before ordering her doki to lower her as she placed her hands on the ground to summon her last two demons in a large puff of smoke shocking the marauders.

"I am going to kill each and every one of you worthless bastards you hear me!" Tayuya roared causing the less experienced shinobi to take a few steps back as they stared down the lumbering demons before them.

Tilting her head back Tayuya took a sharp glare into the tree line behind her. The chunin was no where to be seen as back up. _"Typical useless rat."_ Tayuya mentally spat to herself as she regretted ever putting trust into him to aid her home.

As Tayuya refocused on the intruders she noticed they had grown distinctly bolder as they took a few steps closer with swords and explosive kunai in hand. _"At least they are not underestimating me like complete fools."_ Tayuya noted to her self as each pair of shinobi readied to strike her at once with tense foot steps forward. With each step forward the sounds of strained straw and wooden planks of the roofs under their booted feet constantly caught her attention. Hell she could pin point the exact moment they simultaneously braced themselves to pounce down on her and her doki however a familiar bright blinding light erupted behind her followed by each intruder immobilized.

"Shadow possession success." Tayuya could hear the chunin say with a content tone as he knelt behind the five intruders petrifying them in place.

"Who are you and why attacking this town?" The chunin demanded but his only reply were grunts and curses from his captives.

When no one talked Shikamaru could hear a flutter of notes in the air followed by the Sound nins doki descending on the defenseless victims and beating them to death as the swishing of the massive club batted three of them off the building with a sick sounding thud into a near by houses wall. Tayuya could only grin sadistically as she heard their limbs crack and break from the force of impact. The mummified doki rapidly head butted the left side of one of their necks until it snapped leaving him slumped over caught in the shadows snare.

Shikamaru was flung back by the force put upon his captives forcing him to break the jutsu, he was however able to stabilize himself and land on a nearby roof to give the red head a intense glare however she was far to focused on the last intruder who attempted to make a break for it only to be caught by the bladed Doki's free hand and tossed to the ground to be pinned by its massive foot placed over his head.

"Stop we need more information!" Shikamaru shouted forcing the red head to heel her demon from crushing the pinned mans skull.

"He has two seconds to spill it before I fucking spill him!"

"W-were the crimson skulls!" The intruder suddenly shouted as he felt the ogre's weight press on his head.

"And what the fuck does that mean?" Tayuya shouted as she bended down to meet his frightened eyes.

"I-it means we are an elite band of mercenaries who were hired to attack this village okay?!"

"Hired by who?" Shikamaru asked calmly as he kept a look out for reinforcements.

"I don't know okay, only our leaders know who hires us uhh something about client confidentiality or something...don't kill me okay!." he pleaded miserably with both his hands begging to be spared which disgusted the red headed kunoichi greatly.

"We don't have time for this kinda shit, is that good enough for you?" Tayuya asked the chunin who stepped forward towards the pinned man.

"Have any of your forces engaged a blond haired Leaf Kunoichi in this village?" His voice was cold and steady.

"S-shes held up in the clinic to the north east of town, boss doesn't want us touching the bitch!" He yelped due to the behemoths weight over him.

"What makes her so fucking special?!" Tayuya roared causing the intruder and Shikamaru to flinch due to her voice.

"O-orders are orders!" He yelled back more frightened then aggressive. "We see any shinobi we report back immediately on what action to take."

"You fuckers didn't report back when you seen me!" Tayuya stated with growing bile.

"You jumped us you crazy bitch, what else were we suppose to do?!" He stated gaining a little bit of his courage back.

"Anything else?" She forcefully asked the Leaf Chunin who only shook his head slowly in contemplation.

No sooner then he had turned around he heard a sharp pitch from the flute and what he could only assume was the yell of the intruder as his head was crushed completely

"What the hell is your problem?!" Shikamaru yelled as he gripped the red heads right arm with force.

"My problem is that my home is burning down again and you are slowing me down retard!" Tayuya yanked her arm from his grip followed by having her doki take her into its arm. "If you don't condone me treating filth like this then kill me but don't slow me down or I will kill you rat!" With a sharp tune of the flute it raced off into the bloody streets leaving the chunnin alone.

"Tchh damn troublesome woman..." Shikamaru said aloud as he looked over the bodies of intruders the kunoichi had spread about next to slaughtered villagers. "I need to worry about Ino over that psycho girl."

Tayuya found no resistance as she made her way to the Takahashi residence, she was more unnerved as she saw the bodies of various villagers spread out along the streets, doors and windows of neighboring houses. It pained her to see people she finally had taken the time to learn the names of rot in the streets and houses they used to be so lively in. She may not have cared for each of their lives individually but it pissed her off more then spending a week of enduring her team mates to after having been trained by the greatest Sannin to be an elite shinobi, her jutsu and flute genjutsu mastery and cursed power that she could not save a handful of insignificant peasants...it really pissed her off.

"Cami-chan!" The loud yell snapped Tayuya from her anger as she recognized it as Chinosei calling out to her with a pathetic whimper next door. _"Shit always has to deviate me from my goals,"_ she noted mentally as she ordered her demon to let her down by the back door as she peered into the window to see what looked like a corpse on the ground.

"Chinosei?" Tayuya called out carefully as she crept into the house to identify the young child's mother as the deceased body on the floor holding her sons corpse tightly to her self. "_Worthless fuckers impaled them both..."_ Tayuya noted with disgust.

"Cami-chan help me...I cant see mommy or Minoto any more..." Her muffled sobs could be heard from under the floor boards as she cried to her self.

With caution the former Sound shinobi rolled Chinosei's mother off the entrance to a hidden cellar. Tayuya wouldn't have been surprised if they rigged the corpse with some sort of trap but it appears these bastards were either lazy or far too over confidant.

Upon opening the cellar door Tayuya could see the small child crying to her self in the dark covered in her families blood that had seeped through the floor boards. It felt wrong inside but this was a time where Tayuya was glad the young child was blind and couldn't see the atrocities of both war and meaningless violence.

"Are you okay?" The former sound shinobi asked while both trying to hind her concern and show it. Showing sympathy wasn't her strong suit when she was trained to view sympathy as a weakness.

"C-cami-chan,ca-cami-chan t-they came and m-mamma was hiding me and and n-now I cant see her color any more!" Chinosei sobbed aloud as she hugged her knees close to her self as she shook.

"Chinosei listen to me, we need to leave the house before those bastards come back." Tayuya spoke calmly as she put a reassuring hand on the young child's shoulder.

"W-wheres mamma I cant see her?" She sobbed softly not budging to move.

"She and your brother are not alive any more and either will we be if we stay here so get off your ass and come with me." Tayuya spoke forcefully yet with the affection she could only show the small child.

Chinosei could only cry uncontrollably to this information in the small blood stained enclosure until she felt a firm hand grip her arm and yank her from the darkness around her and pull her against the former sound nins body.

"Mourn them after all of this because you will regret it for the rest of your life if you waste time crying for them now." She hugged the child lightly to console her before leaning a portion of her weight against Chinosei.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I just need you to help me walk got it?" Tayuya said confidently as she motioned the girl to walk towards the exit. Chinosei sobbed softly but obeyed as she wiped the snot from her nose and hugged onto the older girl and became a second leg.

"O-okay Cami-chan." Chinosei responded while letting her tears roll off her face.

It didn't take long for the pair to exit the house into the towns streets where the roaring sounds of fire and wood splinting became ever more clearer in the night air. It could only be a miracle that the entire town was not ablaze.

"C-cami-chan..." The young child spoke with fear as she stopped walking with Tayuya. "Who a-are they?" She pointed to the massive doki who waited impatiently outside the house. Each of their muscles tensed from inaction as they swayed slowly in place.

"Their friends of mine." Tayuya stated quickly before considering it further. "Their a lot like you though not nearly as nice."

"Their color is scary looking Cami-chan." The child stated simply as she continued to walk towards what looked in her eyes as three huge wrongly shaped people who's color was a sinister dark purple.

"They wont hurt you, hell their decent body guards so you got nothing to fear got it runt?" The young child could only nod and allow the ogre to pick her up as it was instructed to via the sounds of the flute and nestle her close to its arm as it used its massive mace to guard her front.

"Before you ask we are going to gramps house, I know those old buzzards aren't dead yet." Tayuya finished with a forced laugh before she instructed her demon to lift her up and carry her over to the badly damaged entrance of the Takahashi residence a few feet away.

Multiple intruders bodies littered the entrance of what used to be the main entrance to her house which now was blown apart from what she could only assume was an explosive tag or a powerful fire jutsu. Either way Tayuya could feel a tightness forming in her chest.

With a few quick notes from her flute the massive doki set the red haired kunoichi down at the entrance while the clubbed demon and mummified one stood guard while keeping the small child safe from harm.

"Stay here until I come back for you, these guys wont let anything happen to you." Tayuya called back with mild confidence to the small child trying to reassure her everything was going to be okay when deep inside her gut was screaming the worst.

Cautiously Tayuya entered her broken home and stayed close against its walls as she limped slowly checking if there were any enemies still occupying the building. She had found two dead intruders so far as she made her way to the kitchen which was a good sign "The old buggers were former shinobi so petty fuckers like this would be no problem..." Her thoughts were quickly cut off as she came to the entrance of their bed room to find Inoue laying over her husbands body sobbing endlessly.

"H-hey..." Tayuya's voice was low with slight disbelief but it was enough to perk the old womans attention to her.

"T-tayuya thank Kami you are safe!" Her speech interrupted by the tears and sos that cried with agony.

"Is gramps okay?" Tayuya asked with slight hesitation in her voice, she couldn't verify his condition from her angle.

"He is dying..." Her voice was that of missery as she continued. "T-those...people..." Inoue forced her self to say. "Attacked the village out of no where, we were home reading then the screams started....h-horrible horrible screams." Tayuya felt a sharp sting in her heart as the memory of her own teams mission came back at her with full force.

"I-im sorry." Tayuya confessed to the villagers of the past she had helped murder.

"Sorry for what Tayuya?" Inoue forced her self to say clearly as the young girl dropped to her knees beside the old woman and over looked the still bleeding Korijo who has suffered multiple shuriken stab wounds to the chest.

"I'M SORRY!" The former sound ninja's wail sent shivers down the old woman as the years of hidden regret and self loathing erupted as she gripped her head nearly pulling her hair out in the process as pent up tears flowed freely burning her eyes. Her body thrashed in place as the red heads pleas for forgiveness were completely inaudible with in her agony filled screaming.

Inoue watched horrified at the girls mental break down. She wanted to reach out to her, wanted to consul her but she knew at this moment the girl would probably tear her to pieces in her madness.

The former Sound ninja had revealed her past to the old couple long ago. She had told them the very night Korijo had found her bleeding to death in the woods from her self inflicted stab wound. He had brought her back to the house as swiftly as he could with one hand coving her would keeping the majority of blood from gushing out. She had been half contiouse as they used all the medical jutsu they had known from both their villages to bring the girl back from the brink of death...something she didn't want.

"_D-don't." The bleeding girl pleaded as she raised her arm and prevented Korijo by gripping his wrist with what strength she had left from tending her wound. "I want to die." Her raspy voice confessed as she slowly forced his hand away letting her wound reopen causing her to wince in pain._

"_Don't be silly Tayuya-chan, why would you want that?" Inoue voice was genuine with concern as she gripped Tayuya's free hand and squeezed it tightly._

"_I'm a...monster, a damned monster that feeds off the lives of others...a monster with out a master to order it or keep it caged up." Tayuya explained with a blood chocked laugh as she thought about her servitude to her master. "I killed people by his orders...young old, fuck it didn't matter after awhile." Her voice was hollow as more life drained from her body. "I even killed for fun...for revenge, payback to those who turned their backs on me when I needed them most." Tayuya remembered the faces of her former villagers who spitted on her and deprived her of food and water as she struggled to survive the streets as a child. "When the Sound Four were ordered to do missions in water country I took my chance to get revenge and killed almost every single one of those heartless bastards. My teammates stopped fucking with me after that..." She said with a small saddened smile to the old couple. _

_Neither Takahashi found the words to counter her arguments. They both had been shinobi in their youth, they both knew what it meant to kill under order and they both had seen fellow and enemy ninja alike kill helpless civilians from the constant stress of battle and the mental turmoil it caused. So their silence brought a sad smile to the red heads blood stained lips._

"_You know...I deserve to die so just...let me." Her voice despite its weak tone was cold and bitter._

_Korijo after a moments hesitation pushed his hand back over her wound and increased chakra flow to his healing jutsu._

"_Bakka...didn't you hear me, just let me rot in hell already!" Tayuya chocked blood out of her mouth from the sudden frustration. _

"_I was a shinobi of the Leaf." Korijo stated surprising Tayuya and his wife. "My wife was a shinobi of Iwa our rival nation, I killed many Iwa shinobi in the defense of my nation and home and Inoue killed many of my fellow Leaf comrades in defense of hers." Tayuya's faded eyes stared almost lifelessly at the couple._

"_You bastards defected your villages?" Her malice towards defectives was obvious in her voice. There was no greater act of treason then defecting from a country you had sworn your life to. Despite her own situation she did not consider her self a defected shinobi...she was worst, she was useless, so useless in fact she had been thrown away by her village. _

"_I met my future wife in battle on a mission to defend our outer boarders. Our forces battled each other to gain control over the mining town in that region were me and Inoue faced each other in battle. Before that we didn't know each other, we were just another faceless enemy to each other." Korijo poured more of his chakra into the jutsu and watched as her cuts which had been penetrated by blade slowly healed and closed back up again slowly._

"_Get to the...point if there is one." Tayuya winced as she spook aloud._

"_We simply fought each other, neither one of us could gain the advantage over the other long enough to finish the other off until the area we fought on became unstable from our forces battling and we were caught as the ground collapsed and we were trapped in the mine together with no escape."_

"_Korijo you need to focus I will tell the rest." Inoue insisted as she also placed a hand over the young girls stomach and used the same healing jutsu as her husband. He nodded and matched his output of chakra to hers._

"_Why are you telling me all this?" Tayuya cut the old woman off before she could continue on._

"_For three reasons." Korijo responded causing both women to focus on him. "The first is so you are focused and don't fall asleep due to blood loss, the second is that we are both stained with the blood of others and we old farts want to confess our sins just the same as you do and the third reason will be explained once your in stable condition." The young girl rolled her eyes at the couple then coughed out more blood, this batch was old and highly coper tasting then the last she had, they must have been making progress closing her wound._

"_We were both trapped under rock and ruble." Inoue continued not seeing any more protest from the young girl. "We each had the opportunity to kill one another but not the means. We couldn't do anything but talk and plan how to escape and rejoin our fellow forces." _

"_We told each other everything down in those dark caverns." Korijo chimed in slightly embarrassed at the memory. "Neither of us could stand with out the other so we carried our selfs and explained what we were fighting for, it turned out to be for the same reasons."_

"_For our nation." Inoue answered for her husband. "The Leaf thought of our forces as evil invaders who wanted to steal for self gain, Iwa saw the Leaf as greedy bastards who profited from our countries famine and lack of resources. Unlike Wind country we weren't blessed with being so close to resources, we were in the most barren of wastelands while the Leaf had plenty over all other nations. " _

"_It took awhile before we cooperated in escape, heck we probably wasted half the air in that tunnel bickering but after the hours we spent down there we no longer resented each other as enemies. In fact it wasn't until we were exhausted, suffocating that we realized we had grown to care for one another."_

"_That idiot kissed me!" Inoue exclaimed causing Korijo to chuckle to himself as he healed the young girl who wished she had slipped away into death long ago instead of listening to the two senial old fuckers talk about their good old days._

"_We were about to accept death then." Korijo spoke in a serious tone forcing the red head to refocus back at him. "Thats when the third Hokage and the shinobi who would become the fourth Hokage came to our rescue and opened an exit for us. Naturally I was relieved to be saved but then the realization that Inoue would be executed by them dawned on me. I begged the old man mercilessly right at his feet to spare her life. He told me that doing so was an act of treason, that the blood on her hands couldn't be washed away by the act of helping me survive. I told him that despite what she may have done she done it for her homeland just as we have, that she is guilty of the crimes that we are guilty of and that to condemn her was to condemn ourself." Silence set in and only the soft hum of chakra flowing into the former Sound nin's body could be heard aside her heavy breathing and wheezing as she clung to life._

"_Y-yeah?" She asked weakly to the couple not sure how much longer she could remain conscientious. _

"_He allowed me to live, not as a prisoner of war but as a free human being." Inoue answered the young girl with a humbled voice. "Both the third and the fourth allowed me to go freely but as punishment against Korijo he was to be no longer a shinobi of leaf so we both left that battle field. I could not return to Iwa since they held great hatred for the Leaf village and the Fire nation so we went and lived as civilians together away from our villages and raised a family together."_

_Tayuya lay there weak from blood lose and confused by the old peoples tale. Taking a deep breath she managed to ask. "W-what in the hell does that have to do...with me?"_

"_You said you were a monster, that you did unspeakable things for your village and now you were a monster with out a home to return to. Now is your chance to become a human again with us."_

"_F-foolishness." Tayuya groaned to Korijo's offer as she turned her face to the side away from the couple. "J-just let me die."_

"_That isn't going to happen now." Korijo's wrinkled face spread into a smile. "Your stomach wound is stable now." He grinned at the closed scar that replaced the gaping hole that once marred her body. _

"_We can be a family to you." Inoue said to her as she squeezed the young girls hand keeping her awake. After a long silence the girl finally gave an audible response before slipping away into dreamless sleep, both Korijo and Inoue smiled at her response._

"_A family...wouldn't...be...so...bad..."_

They had become a family and now Tayuya was losing it slowly due to the actions of some bastards who were just like her. She was as much the killer as them. Maybe more so. The worst part of it was it was all so ironic that she would suffer as those she had hurt and killed had suffered.

"ARGGGGGGAAH!" Tayuya's screaming roared louder as she smacked her head against the wooden edge of the bed railing that Korijo lay dying on. She would have continued had not she felt the soft wrinkled hand place itself against her blood stained forehead and caress her brow lovingly.

"I-I forgive you...Tayuya-chan." He spook weakly driving her back to her senses from the depths of madness. The young girls hands released the grip from her skull, her finger nails unclenched with skin, hair and blood dug under the nails. "I-in all the time I known you...I have n-never seen you cry." He caressed her cheek slowly as she stared at him with reddened eyes. "Y-you have been a fine daughter...Tayuya-chan...i-if only Fukitsu had been as...good a child as...you."

"Dammit gramps don't die on me!" Tayuya pleaded gaining a soft smile from his tired face.

T-this old...love b-bird...needs his r-rest now." His dimming eyes focused on his wife Inoue as she reached out and gripped his other hand firmly as the life faded from his body causing his eyes to close one last time.

Tayuya simply stared at the calmness that had over taken him in death. He looked peaceful, content, it was so bitter sweet to see him like that. Despite the lack of blood relation he kept true to his words and treated her with all the love any real parent would unlike that of her own true deadbeat father would treated to sell her off for beer money. Now he was gone forever.

"D-damn it grandma what do we do now?" Tayuya asked with a quiver in her voice as she turned to Inoue who slumped over her husbands side. "Grandma?!" The young girl raised her voice as she was unanswered. Slowly Tayuya reached out to her to touch her shoulder. No response. She checked her pulse and was unanswered by a single beat. Her heart had stopped.

Alone surrounded by the bodies of loved ones she sat for uncalculated minutes, her mind racing faster then she could even catch up with. She would have been all but consumed had she not her the muffled sniffles of a small child behind her.

"Chinosei?" Tayuya called back with a hollow voice. "How long have you been here?"

Said small girl sat on her knee's in the entrance of the bed room, soft tears running down her reddened cheeks and mucus running down her nose. She shivered and shook in place, her voice nearly too low for the former Sound ninja to hear.

"I-i h-heard you scream a-and and and." She repeated over and over again as she raised a small shaking finger at both of the elderly couple as they lay on the bed.

"...Their gone too." Tayuya could hear her voice crack as she informed the child.

"I cant see them any more!" The child screamed followed by her wailing cries.

Tayuya felt her body move on her own as she stood up and slowly pulled her self against the walls of the house until she knelt down in front of the child and wrapped both arms around her tightly before nestling her head beside the child's. The two remained like this until Chinosei had fallen asleep in the red heads arms, obviously drained by the days horrific events up until this point. Cradling the girl carefully in her arms Tayuya trudged slowly and carefully to one of the crutches that she had scattered through out the house. She never knew where or when she would need them so its close proximity to her was a slight blessing in all of this hell. Careful to balance it under her left arm Tayuya positioned the girl to rest over her shoulder. It may not have been comfortable for either of them but she needed mobility at the moment and that was all that mattered for both their sake. Slowly Tayuya gave the old couple one more long glance before turning around and losing a piece of her self in the process as she walked out of the house bitting her lip to prevent from from another emotional outburst.

Emotions for a shinobi were signs of weakness, unneeded distractions that impede the mission. Shinobi who displayed them were liabilities in the field and distractions to teammates. Distractions that needed to be removed by any means necessary. After all tools don't need feelings, they just need to fulfill their purpose until they break and are replaced as she was. But she wasn't one of Orochimaru's shinobi any more, feelings weren't restricted e but they certainly were not comfortable to a girl who had only known betrayal, hatred and death nor was it easy to break down the emotional shell she had used to defend her self from others and more importantly her self.

Shikamaru made good time as he reached the north eastern side of town. He had slipped through only one patrol of men from whom he had heard there was a recall order issued for all remaining forces. He suppressed the urge to tail them to their leaders, at least until he reunited with Ino. Sadly the thought of her being safe did not out weigh the carnage he had witnessed up until this point. Slaughtered civilians marred almost every corner of the streets. The air was rank with blood and smoke, this town made the attack on Konoha look mild in comparison. _"We at least evacuated before the enemies main attack force began their assault."_ His mind noted as he reached what he believed to be the clinic the deceased intruder had spook of. _"The worst we had were broken homes and buildings...not this."_

Shikamaru landed on the clinics roof and noted the building was highly in tact compared to the rest of the town. An observation that troubled him and would need to be processed in the back of his mind until later but for now he needed to locate his teammate as soon as possible. Hopping down the sides of the building he found the entrance was barred off and the windows boarded up in an attempt to protect the people inside. Thinking quickly Shikamaru surmised the best course of entry was the front entrance as it will not alarm the residence inside nearly as much as if he forced his way in.

"Is everyone safe in there?" He called out as he knocked on the blocked off doors allowing himself to be seen in the window. The building sprang to life with yelling, screams of excited voices. Half of them thought there was an attack while the other half raised their hopes for help. Among all the voices he could not make out any of their words as the huddled populous spook en mass at once.

"Shikamaru!?" A high pitched voice called above all the others. Instantly he knew it was Ino.

"Ino are you all right?" He called back as he moved toward the glass to see the blond haired girl pry the barricade to the dismay of many frightened civilians.

"What do you think your doing girl?1" One called out as he rushed to stop her.

"You'll make us vulnerable you stupid bitch!" Another chimed in as he grabbed her arm as he tried to pry her from the door.

"Leave her alone she protected all of us, she wouldn't open the doors for someone unless she knew it was safe!" A woman cried out as she scolded the males. Reluctantly they allowed her to open then door after seeing the anger apparent in the chunins eyes.

"Thank heavens Shikamaru, I didn't know if you were safe!" Ino yelled as she ran up to him and hugged onto him tightly before pounding him hard in the chest. "Dammit I thought they got to you!" Shikamaru reluctantly took hold of his teammate as he motioned her to enter the clinic as he sensed the people in side become more tense with an area of the building exposed though Shikamaru knew if the enemy wanted get in then they already would have.

Inside the clinic nurses could be seen scurrying back and forth tending to wounded victims, their normally white uniforms stained red from their work. The huddled masses quickly pushed tables and desks at the front entrance.

"Are you okay Ino?, theirs blood on you." He quickly examined her for wounds but found no causes.

"I-im fine, it's from aiding the villagers and repelling the attackers." Ino explained with a rushed voice calming Shikamaru's growing concern.

"That girl is the reason why a lot of us are even alive right now." A man sitting near the two shinobi exclaimed with a humbled voice as he held his daughter close to him self. "She drove off those bastards and secured our escape when the attack began."

"Those butchers don't have the balls to mess with a professionally trained killer!" A large man added with disgust, upon further inspection Shikamaru recognized him as the same construction worker who had chastised him earlier.

Shikamaru winced when he noticed the blood spots on his shirt and noticed the broken arrows he had in is hand. "Guess ninja don't mess with their own kind?!" He threw the insult at Shikamaru who did his best to ignore him. Seeing this the man stood up trying to intimidate the chunin with his size. "I am right huh shinobi scum?"

"If you wanna pick a fight with a shinobi then direct your anger to the ones outside." The young Nara exclaimed calmly meeting the mans glare evenly. His face burned with anger.

"Stop it Miuki!" An old woman demanded causing the wounded man to draw back against the wall. "I am sorry for my sons behavior but he lost much due to shinobi bandits and now has lost much due to this attack.

Shikamaru nodded to the old woman and exchanged glances between both the old woman and his teammate who was simply relieved her teammate was safe. "What happened here?"

"They came when the sun began to fall, started attacking everyone insight with out mercy." The old woman explained. "We didn't stand a chance against them." her son added in disgust an anger.

"I was lucky I was inside the flower shops here when the attack began and not on the streets." Ino explained with sorry in her voice. "Arrows started raining down a-and the people began to scatter, when I saw the assailants on the rooftops I tried to stop them." Her voice began to break as she relived the freight of the assault.

"Is it over now?" One of the nurses interrupted, the youth in her face replaced by stress and fear.

"I over heard them mentioning a retreat, it seems like the worst is over now." Shikamaru stated with caution in his voice. He could actually hear the ex hail of relief from the frightened masses.

"How did you make it here Shikamaru?" Ino asked with concern in his voice. "I couldn't find you in town."

"I seen someone I knew." He began to explain carefully not wanting to cause more worry to his teammate by informing that one of Chouji's killers were still alive. "We left town together to talk and we rushed back when we smelled the smoke in the air coming from the village."

"That rotten bastard chased after Camilla a crippled girl in town, never figured her to be a whore. All the guys stayed the hell away from her from what I seen." Miuki cut in with disappointment and disgust apparent in his voice.

"Hush now Miuki you know she is not the type to stoop so low as that, she has far more self respect then can be attested for the other women her age in this village." His mother scolded him loudly causing more then a few girls to lower their heads in shame.

"She plays music for coins, kami knows what else she might do for them." He shot back defending himself from his mothers chastising.

Before Shikamaru could clarify the situation and dispel any of the speculation he felt a hard slap spread across his left cheek as Ino glared at him in disbelieve.

"I thought you had been killed and I fear for your life and it turns out you were out in the woods with some girl?!"Ino shouted gathering the attention of all the people on the bottom floor of the clinic as they watched the drama unfold between the two teens.

"Geez Ino it isn't like that." Shikamaru tried to inform her calmly as he rubbed her cheek. "She's a shinobi and she helped take down a lot of the attackers in the village.

"Bull shit kid!" The large man Miuki shouted from across the clinic. "That girl cant even walk with out a crutch so there is no way that she can..."

Miuki was immediately silenced as one of the crimson skull attackers crashed through the front windows hitting the barricade dead on as he rolled against the floor before a hulking figure with giant club in hand burst through the front entrance of the building before crashing it's club onto his defenseless body crushing him almost completely.

Who ever didn't seek shelter from the abrupt crash scrambled once the towering behemoth entered and delivered his final strike to the defenseless foe. The clinic erupted into panic and fear as everyone tried to force their ways up stairs practically stampeding over each other.

The sound of the oto ninja's flute couldn't be heard by any of the regular civilians over their frantic screams but Shikamaru was able to pick its unmistakable haunting melody as it ordered the lumbering giant to vacate the building and block the entrance leaving a gap small enough for the wounded red head to stumble in with a small child held close to her chest. Shikamaru could only stair at the downed Tayuya as she let the girl go and spoke to her softly before the child got to her feet then made a dash to the young Nara member and quickly hid behind him and the frightened Ino.

"What the hell is that thing Shikamaru?!" Ino asked in shock as her body automatically took a defensive stance to the commotion.

"Thats a summon from that troublesome girl I had followed early." Shikamaru stated as he motioned for Ino over to him. "Take this girl into safety with the others, I will secure the other girl."

"R-right Shikamaru!" Ino quickly replied as she picked up the small child and carried her into the back of the clinic as Shikamaru quickly made his way to the red heads side but was stopped as an arrow darted into the floor separating him from the girl by mere inches as he jumped back.

"OIIII KID!" A horsed voice called out to the Leaf shinobi. "No one stands in the way of my prey!"

Shikamaru looked at the bleeding red head to notice she was in fact shot in her left shoulder by one of the arrows a fact that was followed by her demon summon to be dispelled back into a massive puff of smoke as it was assaulted by the figure outside of the clinic who unleashed a barrage of well place arrows into the hulking behemoths form.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Shikamaru called over to the red head who only spit blood to the side of her.

"This fucker is calling the shots for the attack...." She informed him as she lay on the floor bleeding.

Shikamaru took a cautious step towards the entrance to meet the attacker dead on. Visually he seemed like the rest of the intruders, he wore the same mesh of black leather and armor though his skin was grotesquely pale and he had a crossbow grafted onto his right arm while all other intruders before him only wielded katana's and kunai. Squinting Shikamaru could make out his grotesque facial features. The man wore a crooked yellow toothed grin across his face, he was all but bald except for the bright green mohawk that catered to his narrow almost hawk like head and features.

"You should have stayed inside KID, that bitch was the only one who needed to die tonight but I guess she can wait." The figure announced with a cruel smirk as he raised the metallic crossbow on his arm and focused it on the chunin.

"Are you the one responsible for this attack?" Shikamaru asked stalling for time to find the best way to launch an offense against him.

"More or less KID." He said with a laugh.

"Who are you, why are you attacking defenseless people?" Shikamaru asked carefully while looking over to the oto girl who slowly crawled into the building for cover. He needed to keep his attention until then.

"Wanting to know the name of the herald of your death huh KID?" He grinned wildly exposing his sharp yellow teeth momentarily. "I am Dokumaru of the Crimson Skulls and this village is simply another job, a job that was going great until that bitch had to go and kill half our recruits!" He shouted as he let one of the arrows that was fed into his cross bow whistle in the air striking Tayuya in her right led pinning her to the wooden floor boards benighted her.

"Y-you fucking mother fucker!" She let her foul language fly loose at the dark clad figure as she quickly tore the arrow out of her leg painlessly.

"_...Thats right, thats her crippled leg, she cant feel a thing there." _Shikamaru remembered as he had turned to rush to the red heads aid once he saw the release from its strings. _"She cant dodge another shot like that!" _

"The next one is gonna nail that foul tongue of yours to the back of your skull wench." He grinned as three arrows launched from his crossbow with three quick clicking sounds. Seeing this Shikamaru dashed to the downed Sound nin with all his speed. He would not allow any more people to die around him.

The steel arrows flew dead on for their target whistling through the air at their mark. They made a sickening sound as they found flesh and sunk into muscle to break the bones on impact. Tayuya's eyes could only stair in disbelief into the eyes of the last person she would expect to save her life as they lay on top of her saving her from the strike. Shikamaru's eyes were wide as he stared back into her brown eyes in shock.

"...Why would you two protect us?" Shikamaru asked slowly as he turned his head to the side to see the person who had taken the arrow blows in his stead as he had intended to do for the girl.

Miuki smiled weakly as he used his body to shield the Leaf ninja Shikamaru from the arrow barrage he himself shielded the red head beneath him from.

"...y-you shinobi...scum...are the o-only ones who can a-avenge t-this village...so...i cant let...you...die.....y-yet." The construction worker concluded with a cough of blood as his muscular body toppled side ways and hit the floor lifelessly exposing the two teens beneath.

"Well isn't that cute." Dokumaru stated as he clicked a switch on the side of his mechanism causing it to reload more arrows into firing position. "But that just means I will have to make a shish kabob out of the both of you!"

Quickly Shikamaru scooped the red head up with both arms and desperately made a dash with her into the clinic while awaiting another payload to drop him as it did the construction worker. But the impact didn't come as he cleared the archers range and he hid with her behind the debris that was created when the young girls doki had smashed its way into the building.

"K-karasu whats the meaning of this?!" Dokumaru stammered as a slightly taller woman with short black hair and black lip make up and eye liner gripped his right arm and jammed the mechanism by using her thumb to prevent the crossbow from clicking. He wore the same uniform as the other member Dokumaru only she wore a short revealing skirt and a short cape with the Crimson skull insignia etched into it.

"Your disobeying Fukitsu-kuns orders again, he wanted you back seven minutes ago. The black haired woman said coldly as she began to twist his arm.

"B-but thats the bitch who killed half our recruits in there!" He yelled causing the woman Karasu to knee him in the gut.

"That doesn't matter for the moment, move out." She ordered coldly causing Dokumaru to nod to her and retreat with her recurrently following in his stead as she smiled and looked back at the building until she was lost from view by the two downed shinobi.

"Looks like were safe for the moment." Shikamaru sighed as he rested against the debris with the injured Tayuya held firmly against his chest.

"Let me go." She said weakly causing him to release her instantaneously once he realized he was still holding her tight against himself. Now that she was free Tayuya slide off and rested beside him staring seemingly into nothing before her.

"Are you okay?" Shikamaru asked trying to strike up a conversation with the eerily silent while normally loud mouthed girl. As a response she simply turned her head and stared at him lifelessly.

"No." Was her only audible response before she turned away from him and concentrated on her wounds. She placed a hand over the arrow wound on her limp leg to prevent it from bleeding.

"I'll go get a nurse too take care of your wounds." Shikamaru offered as he rose to his feet and offered his arm to life the oto nin up.

"We let them get away." Tayuya stated as she stared at his offered hand while letting her body rest.

"There was nothing we could have done in our conditions, they had the battlefield advantage over us." Shikamaru rationalized to her but she just shook her head.

"They spilled too much blood this day." Tayuya stated darkly to the chunin. "To much to ever forgive." Reluctantly she took hold of his wrist and pulled herself off the ground.

"Are you okay Shikamaru?!" Ino's voice diverted the pairs attention to her as she raced down the stairs.

"I'm fine but she needs a nurse as soon as possible Ino." Shikamaru replied as he aided Tayuya to the stairs and led her up them slowly as to not aggravate her injuries. He could tell she did not like to be handled like this but she didn't out right deny their assistance, it would have been foolish too in her condition

"We'll take care of Camilla from here." A nurse offered as she rushed to meet the pair and led them to one of the occupied rooms with other patients being treated by the staff. Shikamaru was surprised by the slightly sympathetic look the red head gave both him and his team mate Ino as she was escorted to one of the tables and awaited the nurses to tend to her.

Outside the room Ino took hold of Shikamaru's arm as she avoided to make eye contact with him.

"Shikamaru...you need to explain to me whats going on here." He sighed deeply to himself as she led him away from the room.

"Damn it this is going to be more troublesome then dodging arrows." He said under his breath as she pulled him aside.

Outside of town atop a lone tree sat a single figure over looking the carnage his forces had inflicted upon the village with discontentment apparent on his face. He personally despised such 'low' missions but the pay was more then agreeable and it was good training for the new recruits they were accepting under their ranks. He tilted his head to the side obscuring his facial features under long dark spiky hair.

"Karasu what took you and Dokumaru so long?" He asked in a curious voice, a playful tone apparent towards to woman.

"I went back to get Dokumaru, Fukitsu-kun." The black haired woman responded in a displeased voice. "He went to kill the shinobi who killed some of our recruits."

"Did you allow him too Karasu dear?" His voice joyful and playful despite his position.

"Of course not, that fool wanted to kill a Leaf ninja as well as an unidentified kunoichi." The woman Karasu waved her right hand dismissively at the thought.

"Ohhh ohh we don't need that kind of attention at the moment." He agreed with a somewhat eager tone in his voice as he chuckled at the news. "We will have to look into that another time as our employer would like us to kindly disappear before we can be linked to him." He finished talking with the same plastered grin on his face before suddenly leaping forward off the branch and free fall to the forest floor to stared down his to other subordinates.

"Dokumaru, Kobushi were heading out, have the recruits follow our lead." He informed the skinny sickly looking Dokumaru and the massive figure standing next to him known as Kobushi.

"Lets move out Skulls!"


	10. The Beautiful Face Of Hate

**_AC: Strath here again with a new update. This one took as long as it did not because I didnt work on it but because I worked on it TOO much. I honestly was not satisfied with how to end it in just the right way and I still am not but I had been writting and writting and making the chapter much longer with much more content then I had originaly intended so I cut it out for the next chapter. _**

**_As always Comment and Review, it keeps me sane to keep my level._**

* * *

A heavy rain had set in over the small trade village of Tenuto as if nature it self was mourning the atrocities that had been committed this day as a population of one hundred and thirty six residence was drastically reduced to that of seventy four and diminishing as victims gave in to to their wounds or voluntarily ended their own life's due to the mayhem and the tragedy it had brought. One such survivor contemplated such an out come for her self before mentally dashing the image away. She now had things to settle before she would once again welcome deaths bitter sweet embrace.

Tayuya lay perfectly still in her hospital bed now being the soul occupant due to the previous one dying from internal damage. She fought the effects of the sedatives the nurses had fed into her IV and chose to stay awake, she needed to stay awake for when he would open the door. It was ironic that after spending so many days and nights wishing to kill a single person almost more then any other not she spent her time waiting for the chance to talk. And so as she waited she filtered out the cries and tears that echoed throughout each floor over the over crowed clinic and transfixed her attention to the rains soft pitter patter against her window as the downfall continued with out rest.

"Do you even know what you are saying?!" The sole Yamanaka daughter screamed at her chunin partner as they both stood in the rain completely drenched. It was the only place he felt comfortable to explain the situation to her. "We cant let her live!"

"Chouji wouldn't want this though." Shikamaru tried to reason to Ino who was now boarder line hysterical.

"I want this!" She screamed silencing both the Nara and her self for a moment from the seer utterance of her words.

"I-Ino listen to your self, do you really think Chouji would be happy to hear you talking this way?"

"Don't you dare use his name to make me feel guilty when because of you he died in the first place!" the moment her words left her mouth Ino had regretted it as her teammates face convulsed into pain as if she had just punched right into his heart "O-ohh god Shikamaru I-I didn't me..."

"What didn't you mean Ino, that I got my best friend killed by my own damn order!" Despite the rain masking the two she knew he was crying. No one cared more for Chouji then Shikamaru had so it was no surprise his death shook him to the core. "I got him killed Ino, I left him there to be beaten so badly he needed to rely on those fucking pills and die!" His voice shook as he screamed in the memory of Chouji's dying face. "If you really want to kill Chouji's killer then kill me!"

"Stop it!" Ino screamed loudly as her right hand slapped the young Nara across the face leaving her hands outline imprinted on her reddened cheek. "Just...stop it Shikamaru..." She stared at her numb hand unable to bare eye contact with him any longer.

Surprised Shikamaru rubbed his face and lip slowly to see blood caused from bitting his lip due to the slap on his own hand.

"Then kill me Ino...I'm the one to blame." He spoke in a monotone voice unable to look at his teammate.

"We cant let her go...shes dangerous." Ino changed topics unable to speak with him any longer on her killing him. That simply was an impossibility to her, she could never hate him enough.

"...She saved a lot of villagers by stopping many of the intruders." Shikamaru responded in a hollow voice seeing that Ino couldn't handle his current statements any longer.

"That just proves she is still dangerous, she can still kill people." Ino stated coldly to which Shikamaru could not deny after witnessing the brutal devastation she was still capable of. "Regardless of anything else she is still ninja of Orochimaru, letting her go would be treason against the Leaf."

"She said she wasn't during our fight out side town and I believe her." Shikamaru defended the red head with as much conviction as he could muster.

"You cant trust her either way!" Ino shouted before fixating her gaze onto the ground masking her tears with that of the rain.

"Ino?" His voice evident with concern as Shikamaru reached to her shoulder only for her to turn away suddenly.

"Do what you want Shikamaru, I wont stop you any more." Shikamaru watched as she walked down the battered streets to join surviving villagers. "When Leaf enforcements arrive I wont mention her."

With nothing left to say between the once close teammates the young Nara reluctantly made his way to confront his former nemesis. However given his current state of mind it would take him awhile to compose his thoughts clearly.

* * *

Tayuya's lifeless eyes strayed around the small dark room constantly fixating on and off the door. Both her ears perked when she heard some one turn the nob and heard the click of the lock remove. Sometimes she hated her enhanced senses but other times they were a blessing.

"I was starting to wonder if you would show." She said with a neutral voice as her long awaited guest entered and sat on a chair positioned in front of her. She could see the wariness evident in his eyes and faction features. "You look like shit." She stated for good measure as he stared at her almost oblivious.

"Your one to talk, nurses said you looked half dead." Shikamaru countered back after inspecting the girls appearance. She had lost her normally loud spirit and her complexion had drained extreamly.

"Any news on the bastards who did this?" Tayuya asked bluntly.

"Nothing new besides what we already know, Konoha reinforcements are to arrive with in the hour and they will begin a full investigation." She nodded softly to this information, it was not at all unexpected.

"...And what about me?" Her gaze transfixed to the window away from the chunin.

"You defended the village, I wont mention you to them." She turned to face him with slight shock.

"Don't be foolish, we both know what needs to be done." Her voice was cold and dark to his ears. "I don't have anything left to live for in this village, those bastards slaughtered the only real family I ever had and I am well aware I can not exact vengeance for them in my current condition so just...end it." All the hostility the red head was once exuberant with had been washed away like blood down the storm drains of the streets of the once peaceful village she lived in. Shikamaru could no longer feel the venom she had once harbored for him so strongly.

"...You know that young girl was asking for you once she woke up right?" Shikamaru stated surprising the red head. "Her family has been confirmed dead so she is going to be placed in an orphanage for adoption."

"She doesn't deserve that kind of life!" Tayuya objected suddenly as her medical monitor flared in a series as beeps.

"Then adopt her." Shikamaru suggested causing the girl to stare at him in shock.

"A-adopt her...no, my hands are stained with far to much blood for such a lofty idea as that." Her head lowered in memory of the children she had murdered during her missions.

"I wont pretend I know the things you have done until this point but there isn't anyone in this village she wants to care for her as much as you." Shikamaru admitted to her truthfully. If he didn't trust her with the child completely he would have never had suggested the idea. "Just think about it at least, might do the both of you some good." He rose from his seat and made his way to the door, it was too uncomfortable to stay in the same room calmly with an enemy he had almost killed with his bare hands.

"...Hey wait." Her voice hesitant as she called out to him causing him to regard her with a confused look. "I thought you might want to talk about that mission." Her voice uneven as she suggested the idea.

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru inquired already knowing full well she was referring to the retrieval mission but not her reasons to bring it up.

"I can see it festering inside your mind, I figured you would want to get it off your chest once and for all." Tayuya stated with an even voice, not exactly the sound of sympathy but then again sympathy wasn't one of her strong suits from living a life of self enclosure and isolation from others.

"Do you even care?" Shikamaru responded with anger apparent in his voice as he expected the red haired girl to take shots at him as his teammate had done earlier.

"I don't know what I care about anymore." Was her simple and honest response that caused the chunin to sigh and take his seat in front of her bed once again though with clearly more frustration apparent on his face.

"That mission...was a complete failure." Shikamaru stated with a heavier sigh before dredging up that day in complete clarity in his mind. "As I told you before our battle before it was my first mission as a chunin and I had complete trust in my subordinates as I thought a leader should. It was meant to be a simple task as finding Sasuke and bringing him back but instead it turned into a blood bath." The atmosphere in the small clinic room grew heavy as the young Nara's voice constantly fluctuated in uneven tones. For the former Sound nins credit she simply stared and listened as he explained. It was ironic she noted that their outlook on both their missions were the same. It was to be a simple grab and retreat. Things she knew were never that lucky or simple.

"Not only didn't we bring Sasuke back but we lost four people along the way, they lost their lives for what?!" Shikamaru shouted suddenly in anger. "Neji, Akamaru, Lee and my best friend Chouji died for the sake of Sasuke and what did he do when we had finally fought through everything and reach him...he turned his back on us and put Naruto into a coma before willingly walking into Orochimaru's hands." Tayuya could tell he was preventing him self from crying now. It was a truly pathetic sight to see a shinobi so weak but the memory of her mourning the two elderly guardians earlier today stopped her from scolding the chunin for his lack of discipline. Shinobi in nature were not suppose to show or have feelings, such things always complicated things and lead to their deaths.

"You look like you want to say something?" His dull hollow sounding voice snapped her from her contemplation of the fate of shinobi's.

"It isn't my place to say any more." Was Tayuya's soft response as she allowed her self to relax enough to feel the cool misty breeze blow over skin cooling her from the stuffiness of the hospital room.

"You must have some criticism for me?" Shikamaru joked in an empty tone.

"I didn't ask if you wanted to talk just so I could criticize and belittle you, I am not so petty to ask to take cheap shots when I already know you have taken them at yourself." Her voice stern and harsh but despite that Shikamaru could not take offense. Deep down he had wanted her to belittle him for his mistakes as she had long ago that day. He was arrogant and she was right, thats all it came down too.

"Yeah I guess I have after all this time." For a moment silence set in between the two teens before Shikamaru forced himself to speak. "You know me and my teammate Ino came here to find flowers for my friend Chouji's grave, finding you here was the last thing I expected." The chunin leaned forward towards her bed, sensing this Tayuya turned her self away from the window to meet him before changing her gaze to that of the ceiling once more. She already knew where the topic was headed and let out a soft sigh as she stared into the plan nothingness of the tiles.

"After you and that bitch left me to rot in the forest I crawled my way here in search of medicine, fuck knows my wounds were becoming infected due to both of your shitty incompetent medical work on me so I raided a few houses to find nothing but poor ass people and that blind girl Chinosei." Tayuya took a moment to compose herself as she vividly remembered the pain her body was in and how desperately she clang to the false hope of life as she scrounged like a rat in a garbage can for medical supplies in their homes. "It wasn't long after that I broke into the geez...the Takahashi's house when my wounds had opened up and I surcame to fever and passed out bleeding on their floor like a gutted pig." Her voice Shikamaru noted was now filled with the bile and anger he had always known her for.

"But instead of leaving me to die even though I treated to kill them they treated me and kept me alive so when they were asleep I spared them their lives even though they saw my face and I left to return to Orochimaru's side." Her eyes closed as she remembered the soul shattering events that followed.

"Your not with him now so what happened?" Shikamaru spoke up forcing her to speak her mental thoughts.

"My master didn't want me thats what happened." Tayuya responded with an intense glare to the chunin before her eyes softened slightly and refocused her gave to the ceiling. "A broken shinobi is like a broken weapon...their completely useless and need to be discarded immediately before you regret relying on them in the battlefield."

"I thought that Kabuto guy was an expert medic, couldn't he have fixed your leg and wounds?" Shikamaru pointed out after remembering Kabuto's infamous medic abilities.

"You don't understand anything do you?" Tayuya snapped while facing him once more. "I failed my mission even though that faggot made his way to Orochimaru and besides all of that the bitch took what was most precious to me...she took my pride as one of Oto's elite and my master could see it just from looking at me!" She paused lowering her head in disgrace. "So he left me there to rot and I..and I..." Tayuya began to trail off as she place her left hand against her forehead and face as it was obscured by her unkept hair. "I at least tried to dignify my self with a dignified death but those old fools wouldn't let me and now I have to suffer for their deaths." Her harsh voice trailed off in memory of the only people she could call a family with pride in her voice.

"I cant picture you as the type." Shikamaru stated bluntly earning her brown eyes to fixate on him. "But I only know you from battle I guess." He scratched his pony tail lightly as he reclined back into his chair.

"You should go, your stupid teammate is probably waiting for you with the flowers." Tayuya stated as she turned away and stared out the window o the still falling rain. She heard his chair creek back as he rose from it followed by the soft foot steps to the door.

"You gonna be okay ?" He forced himself to ask as he stood at the door gripping the nob.

"Why would you even care rat?" Her voice stern as she called back to him.

"It would be a waste if you died is all." He grinned slightly as he looked back at her. "We should play Shoji sometime, I always wondered how good you would be in it."

"Bakka trash." Tayuya muffled into her pillow as she wished for sleep to remove the pent up stress of her body.

Upon hearing the muffled insult Shikamaru turned the nob only for it to become stuck as someone turned it the other way. Seeing this the chunin let it go as the Anbu on the other side opened the door and gave a slight bow to the chunin.

"Nara Shikamaru, Higato Karashi of the third black ops division reporting in from Konoha!" He stated in a stoic military tone behind his clay bird mask causing the chunin to simply nod as he took a glance behind himself to see if the red head had jumped at the introduction. He was relieved to see her body had not even flinched to draw suspicion.

"Its good your here, this village has been badly damaged by the attack." The understatement was obvious to both Leaf nins.

"Correct, we have already gone over the incident with Yamanaka Ino and have identified the culprits responsible as the Crimson Skulls. An investigation will commence on this matter however we will still need your testimony on the events right away." The masked Anbu directed his right arm down the hallway signaling for the chunin to exit.

"If it is all right can you debrief me here?" Shikamaru offered suddenly confusing the Anbu as well as the red head who pretended to be asleep as she was over hearing the entire conversation.

"It would be best to conduct the inquiry in a private location." Karashi stated in a not so condoning manner.

"I understand but I promised I would watch over this girl in case she attempted to harm her self, the clinic simply does not have enough staff to make sure she remains in a safe state of mind, on top of that she is currently asleep so if there is any chance I could be debriefed here it would be greatly appreciated." Shikamaru offered hoping the Anbu would buy the fake story and take the bait.

" What is that bastard trying to pull?!" Tayuya inwardly thought as she continued to fain sleeping in the shinobi's presence.

"As you wish then, miss Ino has already stated for the record that you had saved one of the towns civilians from the attack. I will make my inquiry as quick as possible." The Anbu conceded.

" So much for not mentioning her Ino..." Shikamaru noted painfully as he knew Konoha intelligence were prone to backtracking information given to them. _"If they find something suspicious in the report they would eventually find the her out."_

"We just need to confirm that the intruders identified them selfs as the Crimson Skulls." The Anbu stated drawing Shikamaru from his thoughts.

"Yes thats is correct, both a member and a man calling himself Dokumaru who seemed to be one of the ringleaders proclaimed that when confronted, is Konoha planning to hunt them down?" Shikamaru knew he was pushing his luck with that last part as it wasn't his place to request that sort of information but then again it would simply be taken as curiosity on his part by the Anbu and not as digging for mission related information.

"That is a negative, we were informed by upper ANBU branches not to pursue those individuals however we will provide aid to this village and its residence." Shikamaru blinked in surprise of this information. It didn't make sense to not go after the murderers.

"I more then understand aiding the village but why aren't we going after the bastards who did this?" Shikamaru protested verbally earning him a stern stare behind the mask.

"Orders are orders, we will investigate the matter of who had hired them. This inquiry is concluded Shikamaru." Karashi broke off conversation as he headed down the hall to exit the building.

Waiting to make sure the pest was gone Tayuya called out the the black haired chunin. "Get in here and shut the door." She whispered aloud just enough for Shikamaru to catch her. He did as he was told and she shifted her self off the bed facing the chunin in an upright position.

"What the fuck was that all about?!" She demanded trying to keep her voice down despite her anger.

"I felt you would want to hear it your self instead of being left in the dark or having to take my word on it." Shikamaru exclaimed in a low voice to the frustrated red head.

"I mean why are they not going after those fuckers...this whole affair is shady as hell!"

"Glad I am not the only one who thinks so, despite the vicious attack the property damage is significantly low in the business area of town compared to the residential area. Its almost like they pin pointed targets and masked the fact by attacking the whole town." Shikamaru stated to the red head as he placed the pieces that had been bugging him together.

"Makes fucking sense, I found that Dokumaru faggot near the rich side of town overlooking the carnage when he could have been attacking the mayors residents. If this whole shit is a cover up for something then the only person with enough blood money to hire a pack of mercenaries would be the mayor of this shit hole!" She had risen from her bed and took hold of a crutch provided to her by the staff as she made her way to the door before the chunin stood up to stand in her way.

"You cant be serious to leave in your condition." Shikamaru stated with certainty as he blocked the exit with his arm.

"If that bastard had anything to do with this attack I am going to personally kill him before he bribes his way out of it!" To prove her conviction Tayuya smacked the end of the crutch against his right knee forcing Shikamaru to stumble slightly as she quickly passed by him only to have her right wrist grabbed as she attempted to close the door behind her.

"Geeze are you always this damn troublesome and violent?" Tayuya ignored the sarcastic question as she yanked her arm out of his grip and continue on her quest of vengeance before he attempted once again to stop her only this time sensing his reach violate her personal space Tayuya carefully swirled around and gripped his wrist slamming it against the still open door forcing a painful grunt to escape his lips.

"If you get in my way again your my target too rat!" Her harsh voice warned as she stared him down only to be surprised by the seriousness in his eyes.

"And if you keep being a stubborn woman your going to die before you even reach the streets!" Shikamaru declared as he pointed with his free hand to the bloody bandages that marred her right leg. "Your just going to reopen all your wounds!"

Irritatedly the red head stared at her limp leg with hatred as she remembered how pushing her self nearly cost her her life when she raided the village for medical supplies which only caused her to pass out from blood loss. It infuriated her that she could not push her self to gain better results like her old days in Sound because no matter how hard she willed it and trained her leg would never become usable and would remain a liability. Besides that her body felt like complete shit after the days horrific events.

"I wont just sit here and do nothing!" Tayuya suddenly spook up as she still transfixed her gaze on her leg.

"Then recover while I look into it." Her face rose to meet the chunin with slight bewilderment apparent in her features.

"Why, what do you care about this village?" She heard her self ask him as she lessoned the grip on his wrist.

"Its troublesome but...its the right thing for me to do given everything that has happened." Her hand released his wrist after hesitation to his words. With out making eye contact Tayuya limped to her bed and stopped before it.

"Why did you risk your own skin to save me from the arrow attack?" Tayuya asked surprising the chunin who at the moment did not utter a response. "I would have been dead with no blood on your own hands so why when there was nothing you would gain?"

Shikamaru entered the room closing the door behind him with a small click that caused a twitch in the girls stature as she looked away from him. She could hear him take two deep breaths in the other wise complete silence of the room.

"During the attack on Konoha during the chunin exams I was content to do nothing while everyone else risked their lives trying to preserve the village. I didn't think of it as cowardice on my part since I wasn't particularly afraid to die...no I was just a lazy bastard who thought it'd be too much trouble to help out so I left it to everyone else but I ended up being found out and forced to help out anywhere and ended up as being the person left behind to take on all of the enemy ninja who followed us. In short a suicide mission which was perfect for me since I was always the one who was best at running away in life." Tayuya turned to face the chunin who's facial feature were completely unreadable even to her keen eyes.

"What changed?" She asked as her brown eyes met his black eyes.

"I watched my teammates die one by one after the failed retrieval mission...some were dead before they even reached Konoha so it was then I realized how important each life was...how irreplaceable each person is in this world even if..." His voice sombered up into a sad sounding chuckle. "Even if that life belongs to a foul mouthed woman like you...its still irreplaceable."

She couldn't comment on his words Tayuya realized as she tried to find the correct words to speak back but found none. Her life never really mattered to her even after becoming one of Oto's prized shinobi. Her fate was that of a weapon and eventually all weapons blades become dull over time and need to be replaced. Her life of servitude was one of the coldest of realities but it was a reality none the less she understood and was committed to. The simple desire to be needed, that she mattered to someone even if only temporary was enough for her to commit to, that is why she joined Sound and why this simple yet complex girl turned from deaths bitter sweet embrace and joined the old couple as a family.

"I.." Her voice finally broke the silence that had set in between the two teens. "..Am irreplaceable to you Nara?" The confusion in her voice matched the confusion in the males face to the question as his eyes widened in surprise.

"Y-yeah I guess you are." Shikamaru responded as he fumbled on his words before he made his way to the window by her bed and opened it allowing a quick breeze of rain to blow in marring the soft fabric of her sheets. "If the mayor is involved I will make sure he is brought to justice so just recover." He stated quickly before jumping out the window and racing along the roofs to the mayor's residents confused over the words he had just said to her. Tayuya simply stood bewildered staring out the window as wind and rain whipped her face and blew her long hair back as she watched him fade into the distance before grabbing the windowsill and shutting it tightly as the rain drops splashed against the glass inches away from her confused face.

"Bakka." A soft whisper left her lips and fogged the glass before she turned away to slowly place her self on the bed leaving her crutch with in arms distance as her head rested upon the pillow as she transfixed her gaze to the soft pitter patter of rain drops against the window before she flung her pillow against the glass then stared at her ceiling confused by the thoughts and feelings that now plagued her mind.

* * *

Shikamaru raced to the mayors residents as he back tracked his way down the broken alley ways he had once to use follow the red head out of town only this time he had minor divination to his course as he raced to the easy to spot manor in the north of the village that over looked the town. The rain whipped across his face leaving a numbing effect as his lungs slowly took in the charred embers of the burnt wood that was blown by the wind. He noticed survivors removing wreckage from the streets and their homes and the small glimpses of Konoha shinobi aiding villagers.

For the moment however Shikamaru preferred to go unnoticed as he neared the estate and lunged over its high walls and stiff security detail as he landed near one of the main floors windows to glance at a heavy set, well dressed man pace back and forth as he conversed with a shady looking figures across the living room. Their conversation however remained a staggered blur of shouts and what Shikamaru could only assume were whispers. Lucky however the ninja academy had taken time to teach their students lip syncing, unlucky was the fact Shikamaru had slept through mostly all of the classes.

"I'm going to need to get closer huh." Sighing greatly the chunin hopped onto the roof of the estate then down to a small window ledge to an attic. Gripping the bottom of the window the chunin found it to be completely locked down.

"Typical." Nara sighed as he stood upon the ledge soaked from the still pouring rain. "I should be able to open it with my shadow possession jutsu but its going to be really troublesome during night." He huffed aloud as he readily preformed the necessary hand signs and watched as a small slither of his shadow barely take form in the lightless sky then forcefully controlled it to slip under the window frame to try and unlock it from inside. After much effort the small shadow had unlatched the windows lock before dissipating completely from lack of light.

Careful to open the window slowly the young Nara ducked into the musky air of the attic which was filled with a large assortment of crates and paintings as well as other highly priced commodities people only buy to just have. Cautiously he crept upon the floor boards as not not make a sound to give his position away. Once he estimated his location to be above the living room where the mayor was hopefully still located he removed the floor boards to enter an extremely cramp crawlspace under the frame work of the two floors where he could over hear the conversation down below.

"Did you dispatch the clean up team Gapachi?" Shikamaru heard a deep voiced man ask as he listened above the ceiling.

"Of course master Kato, Ritsuki should be more then capable of cleaning the extra trash from your town." A gruff sounding man answered. _"He must be talking to the mayor of the village."_ Shikamaru answered himself.

"Its extra work but we need to clean up the trash the Crimson Skull's missed." The gruff sounding man continued to Shikamaru's dismay as the puzzle began to complete in his mind but what followed only left dread in his heart. "Ritsuki should already have killed the piper girl from town by now then he will dispose of the two Leaf nins who arrived today."

" W-what, they sent assassins out to murder the witnesses?!" Shikamaru's mind raced as he with drew his kunai and quickly yet carefully drilled a small hole into the floor so he could overlook the conversation with his own eyes. With a peep hole just small enough to see with he watched the heavyset man laugh as his subordinate bowed to him.

"A shame Konoha blood will need to be split for this union but Danzo's ideals can not allow stones upon its road!." A familiar voice announced as the Anbu officer entered he living room with two subordinates in toe.

"Agreed, I hope Danzo appreciates the sacrifices I have made today. Loyal business partners are a rare commodity in the world now a days." The mayor Kato told the Anbu to Shikamaru's surprise.

"Of course, Danzo admires your willingness to extend Konoha's territory but he only tasked me with how the cleaning went?" The Anbu asked giving Kato a small bow.

"It went as planned, the Crimson Skull's cleared out nearly everyone on the list as well as destroyed the marked homes and businesses. They pulled out once the Leaf shinobi killed their recruits, they increased the cost for the job to which I humbly conceded to since it was far more important to have the job completed with out incident for both my own sake as well as yours." Kato grinned a toothy grin as he hinted towards a small reimbursement.

"I am sure you will be well compensated for the expenses in due time once this village becomes apart of our domain." Karashi insisted as he turned away to leave before a single drop of water fell on his shoulder much to Shikamaru's surprise as he realized it had fallen off his face due to the heavy rain from outside.

No sooner had the Anbu realized the droplet he searched then found the small pea sized hole in the sealing. In a bout of speed Karashi pulled multiple kunai from his belt and flung them into the ceiling easily penetrating into the crawl space.

"What the hell do you think you are doing to my house?!" The surprised Kato yelled as all of the rich mans men were brought on guard.

Karashi ignored the demand as he leaped onto the ceiling punching a hole into the frame work then ripping a large chunk away as he cautiously inspected the crawl space to only find the exit made by whoever had been spying on their conversation. Even behind his mask he could feel the cool air blow in from the opened window of the attic. Dissatisfied with the evident lack of blood signifying his kunai missed their mark he dropped to the floor as his fellow shinobi gathered to him for orders.

Confused by the situation the mayor Kato ran to the Anbu's side demanding an explanation. "Karashi will you answa-ARGHHH!" Kato was immediately cut off as red jets of blood sprayed from his throat from the kunai which had just silenced the greedy man once and for all. His heavy body hit the floor with a loud thud as his guards scrambled to defend them selfs.

With a face as emotionless as his blood stained mask Karashi issued the following order to his men who swiftly carried it out. "Prevent no one from leaving alive, there must be no witnesses." The ensuing screams priced Shikamaru's ears as he ran into city to escape being seen, it was already bad enough he just was able to exit the building before the Anbu had broken into the attic. Whatever was happening in there he was sure they deserved it for selling out their own village but that as only a side issue now, they had sent an assassin to the hospital and he needed to reach there fast.

* * *

Tayuya remained awake in the quiet room. Her head rested upon the pillow she had once thrown in anger at the window because of the black haired teen, the window she had left open for fresh air to keep her awake until his return. She had quietly begun to hum one of her flute melodies to her self until a sudden knock on the door broke her concentration. After a moments hesitation the red haired girl called out with a simple "Enter." expecting to see the chunin stand before her once more.

"Your Camilla right?" A tall blond girl asked as she held a bouquet of flowers in her left hand as she entered the room. The red head only nodded slowly in confirmation.

"I wanted to give you this for everything you have done." The girl said cheerfully as she offered the bouquet as she now stood beside the bed.

"Theres no need, I didn't do anything worth shit." Tayuya said aloud as she waved the blond girl away.

"I insist though..." Her cheery voice dissipating quickly. "You deserve it!" The girl screamed as she thrust the bouquet of flowers revealing a hidden blade which gleamed in the moonlight that warned Tayuya of the hidden danger as she tried to react and dodge it.

The kunai sank deep into the pillow as blood ran down its blade. The blond girl smiled instantly to this fact before she felt a strong grip take of of her arms as the blond girl tried to tug the kunai from the blood stained pillow as she realized it had only grazed her targets cheek.

With a voice as shrill as death it self the red head spoke aloud as she watched her own blood run down the fidgeting blade still tightly clenched in both of the blond girls hands.

"For that, your dead bitch!"


	11. Thickening Development

**_AC:Ohh where do I begin with this explaination. Well as a few of you may or may not know if I had mentioned it at all was that I was facing a major crisis. I had been unable to find a job and was forced to move back home. While back I had been unable to aquire anything thus putting me in both a rough financial and mental state. So no inspiration for writting. I have however been able to aquire such a job recently so that pushed me out my depression and I finished it. Sorry for the long wait for those who waited. As always please Comment and review, it only helps the stories._**

"For that, your dead bitch!" Tayuya warned simultaneously as she forced the kunai deep into the bed with her right hand while twirling her body back to force the back of her left hand against her attackers skull knocking her off balance as well as releasing the blade from her grip causing her attacker to stumble as she frantically tried to refocus her vision only to see a quick blur of red rush towards her followed by immense pain to the left side of her forehead as she sustained another debilitating blow that sent her tumbling to the floor as her would be target scrambled in her white hospital gown and took hold of the blood stained kunai while turning her body to the still stunned blond girl. It may have been the possible concussion the attacker was suffering from but the swirling image of red and white looked as if a demon from heaven was about to set its teeth upon her. Struggling to refocus her vision the blond attacker braced her arms for the coming attack.

"If only Shikamaru w-would see you for what you really are!" The would be attacker slurred to her would be victim catching the red head off guard as she lowered the kunai in realization.

"You...your his teammate, the one he came with in search of flowers?" Tayuya asked aloud as she still held the weapon gripped tightly in hand as her cheek burned with pain from the blades edge.

"Why is he protecting an animal like you!?" Ino screamed as she struggled to her feet to stand off against the crouched girl on the hospital bed.

"I wish I knew why too bitch." The former sound nin answered dejectedly as she slowly and cautiously moved her body back on the bed with her free hand and working knee. "Get the fuck out of my sight, I don't need any more worthless blood on my hands."

"Shut up!" Ino yelled as she placed her hands in front of her self making the appropriate hand signs. "I'll take you out for Chouji I swear it, _Shintenshin no Jutsu!"_

Before Tayuya could ready for the jutsu her body had already become paralyzed followed by the vision of her eyes slowly fading to darkness with her last glimpses being that of the blond girl collapsing before her.

Slowly light reappeared in her vision though somewhat distorted then before. She still saw the blond girl laying on the floor uncontentious before her. Besides the blurred vision everything would have been normal...had she not noticed herself bringing the kunai over her chest prepared to plunge it into her heart. Startled Tayuya tried to stop her body from its action only to notice she no long had any control.

"_What the fucks going on, is this another kami damned nightmare?!" Her mind wailed into the void of darkness and she stared out of her own eyes as if trapped behind glass._

"_Its no dream." A voice echoed loudly into the recesses of Tayuya's mind. "What your seeing is your real death."_

"_What the hell are you talking about?" Tayuya shouted back into the void of her mind._

"_Its my clans specialty jutsu, with it I can enter another persons body and control them meaning you get to watch your own body kill itself with no way to prevent it." The blonds voice taunted as Tayuya was forced to watch her hands take the kunai and slice it across left arm much to her horror. While enduring the burning pain in her mind Tayuya peered through her eyes to see the blonds body convulse slightly on the floor._

" _Of course my jutsu is not with out its dangers as you can see." Ino called out with a pained voice. "It renders my body immobile and defenseless as well as transferring any damage you receive to me."_

" _Then I doubt you have the balls to kill your self with me bitch!" Tayuya mocked as she desperately tried to regain control over her body. The kunai in Tayuya's hand lowered before it was dropped to the floor._

" _You not worth me throwing my life away to rid the world of." Ino called out in anger to her captives taunts. "That doesn't mean I cant have you kill your self." Her voice filled with confidence as Ino controlled the body to turn and stagger to the open window. _

"_I don't know how this woman can move around like she does given she can only use one leg." Ino mentally noted as she stumbled against the wall of the window before picking her self up._

"_Its because I am a hell of a lot stronger then your diabetic ass bitch!" Tayuya mentally snapped back at the invading girl upon hearing her thoughts._

"_Not strong enough to resist my jutsu, only people of strong body and will are able to but you cant because your nothing more then a worthless wounded animal that needs to be put down!" Ino mentally countered after delving into the red heads mind. She now had the girls frail body looking out into the rail filled streets of the small village._

"Get the fuck out of my head!" Tayuya roared suddenly to the remark momentarily pushing the surprised Ino out of control causing the body to slump over the windowsill. Ino now had to use every ounce of concentration to hold off the rage filled will power of her Oto nemesis. Forcefully she controlled the red heads body to exit the window and stand on the ledge as she ignored the constant mental barrage of curses and obscenities that deafened the blonds mind.

The rain whipped across Tayuya's bodies face as she stood on the ledge slightly swaying in the cold nights breeze. The red heads mental outburst subsided as she watched from her own eyes the deadly drop to the streets muddy surface. Even Ino remained silent as she starred down looking at the deed she was about to commit.

"Believe me when I say I don't want to pry into your disturbing mind." Ino's mental voice was calm and collected as she starred down into the street. _"I am using every inch of my will power so I don't have to be defiled by your wrenched memories."_

" Get the fuck out of my head bitch before you regret it!" Tayuya screamed as her neck began to burn with hatred at the mere thought of this woman defiling her mind further.

" I will leave once I disengage my jutsu as you plummet to the ground, by the time you regain control it will be too late to react." Ino then tried forced the Oto nins leg off the ledge only watch as it remained stationary. _"Whats going on?"_ Her mind raced as she stubbornly attempted to move her captives body. Before the blond kunoichi could focus her concentration harder to budge her captive she felt a tightness strangle around her neck.

" Now you will wish you left my mind alone bitch!" A dark twisted figure with five horns spook with a sadistic grin as her arm tightened around the mental manifestation of Ino's throat.

As the blond struggled in the dark skinned girls grip she could only watch helplessly as she struggled as the girls free left hand rose to the blonds face pressing the five sharp finger nails deeply against the blonds skin before quickly dragging them across her face and ears while delighting in the ghastly wail that emitted from the blonds mouth.

Screaming Ino disengaged her jutsu to escape the mind numbing torture the redhead had inflicted towards her. Her first moments of consciousness were spent wailing loudly on the floor of the clinics floor gripping her face to stop blood from flowing from a wound that didn't exist. Before that realization could be made the newly transformed redhead had regained control and had already entered the room with yellow eyes drawn on the screaming blond. As she watched the blond scream in agony Tayuya could only grow more disgusted with the sight.

"Bitches like you make me sick!" Gripping the collar of the blonds shirt firmly with her left hand Tayuya sunk her right fist into the side of the blond girls cheek with a grin of satisfaction. One after another she struck the girl till the sobs stopped and her fist was numb and covered in crimson fluid.

With out a word spoken to her felled opponent Tayuya let go of the beaten and mangled girls collar and let the girls head thud against the blood soaked wooden planks beneath her. The older kunoichi simply stared at the mess she had made of her attacker who now took deepened delayed breaths from her blood frothed mouth.

" ...Are you happy now bitch?" Tayuya's empty voice called out to the wounded kunoichi before her as the redhead rested her body against the side of the bed over looking the girl.

Ino could only cough up blood as she choked and tried to remain conscious.

" ...You got your wish bitch...your partner...that rat, is going to kill me for this." Her horned head rested back against the bed as she focused her gaze to the ceiling as her skin began to revert back to its pale version as the curse mark receded. As if on que she felt a presence approach and draw in on the clinics window.

"You pick the best time to pop up rat." Her empty voiced said aloud as she heard the sound of feet landing on the windowsill amidst the heavy rain.

"Expecting the reaper so soon?" A different voice then she had expected called back snapping the redhead to his direction. "Your pretty perceptive for a cripple." The figure mocked as he easily slipped into the room with shurikens in hand while closing the window casually before noticing the bloody body of a lifeless girl on the floor being overlooked by a girl with black lines moving on their own over her body. "What in the hell..." He said aloud as his mouth gapped slightly at the sight before him.

"Who in the hell are you?!" Demanded the redhead as she hastily pulled her self up off the floor and stood ready to engage the person before her.

"Dammit I always get the crap assignments!" He cursed to him self as he flung two shurikens dead on for the red heads skull only for them to slice off small locks of hair as they whizzed over her head. Tayuya ducked to the floor as she closed the distance gap of her new threat

Surprised by the crippled girls speed the attacker stretched out a kick to distance her from him so that he may launch a second volley into her defenseless form. This move would be his down fall as his target braced for the impacted of the kick as she tackled forward knocking his flimsy assault aside and causing him to lose balance as he fell backwards against the window.

Stumbling forward to reach him Tayuya gripped his forearm to balance her self on her good leg as she used her remaining strength to spin him around then pin her attackers face against the glass sending cracks spreading out from impact.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Tayuya demanded as she pressed her right elbow hard against the base of his spine which only caused him to winch and grunt in pain as he struggled against her grip. "Answer me scum!" Losing patience she head butted the back of her skull into the glass much to both their discomfort.

"G-GGahhh my name it Ritsuki, one of lord Kato's men." unsatisfied with his response the red head dug her elbow until she began to hear his spinal cords begin to crack as he gasped in agony. "A-Ahhh, I-i was sent to kill you alright?!" He pleaded for her mercy only for it to fall on deaf ears.

"Just me fucker?" She asked casual as she gave him an extra nudge against his spin for the information.

"Y-you and that blond girl and her ninja friend!" He yelped to the sudden pain.

"What a useless piece of trash you are, you cant even kill a cripple like me but you think you can kill two Leaf shinobi?" Her voice held a sadistic mock as she released him momentarily only to regrip the back of his skull and smash his face into the window shattering it upon impact.

"G-Ggaahh t-there just orders, it was nothing personal!" He tried to reason as small shards of glass pierced into his face causing him to struggle harder against her hold.

"Yeah?" Tayuya asked mockingly as she held his head out of the broken window. "Well either is this." Gripping the back of his skull Tayuya pressed his head down against the bottom of the shattered window frame slicing his throat open from the broken glass beneath. Silently the former kunoichi held him firmly in place as he violently struggled momentarily as his voice let out one last blood choked scream before he fell limp as his blood ran off the building as quickly as the falling rain.

Slowly her firm hand receded as Tayuya took a single step back to take in the gruesome scene. Letting her body fall back she rested on the edge of her bed as she lowered her head to think. She was glad she could hear the faint breathing coming from the blond girl who had attacked her but it was a bitter relief since it was against her policy to allow any one the opportunity to live if they had crossed her.

"You really fucked things up." Her now monotone voice spoke aloud to the unconscious blond as Tayuya's ears perked to the multiple foot steps and voices outside her door. She knew eventually all the nurses who heard the ruckus of her fights who were too afraid to enter before were only moments away from discovering the grizzly scene now that things had calmed down.

As their foot steps grew closer so did the exhausted girls arm for her crutch. By the time the door cautiously slid open to the frightened gasps in the room Tayuya was no where to be found.

Beads of sweat mingled and intertwined with the droplets of rain that rolled of Shikamaru's brow as he checked over his shoulder one last time to see if he had been followed out of the manner. It appeared as if he had escaped being caught as he saw no one scurrying across roof tops trying to track him down. Taking a deep breath he placed his faith on the gamble and nonchalantly walked out of the dark alleyway he had concealed himself with. Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.

With hands gripped tightly in both pockets he walked slowly ignoring the rainfall and destruction around him as he neared the entrance to the clinic. Walking over the wreckage that was caused by the sound girls demon his attention was grasped by the loud chatter of voice on the second floor. With growing concerns his slow pace turned into a rush as he saw nurse and patient alike talking, shouting, gossiping and in the rare case breaking down in a corner.

"Whats going on here?" He asked aloud to seemingly no one in the loud cluster of people. Upon hearing a new voice half the crowed turned to him to bombard him with indecipherable information.

"Another attack!" An old mans voice responded.

"Those killers must have returned?!" One girl asked the group.

"He is a ninja, he can protect us." A man in the back of the group called out.

"She's lucky to be alive right now." Another commented.

"They must have kidnapped her, you all heard how they attacked her before." Another person chimed into the shouting masses.

"Enough!" Shikamaru shouted losing his composure to their jumbled words. "Just...one person tell me what happened." His words hushed the mob momentarily as one nurse broke off from the others to stand before him.

"It will be easier if you follow me, I can explain on the way." Her voice was wavering with fear and nervousness but she stood firm before the chunin and opted for him to follow. With a gratuitous nod Shikamaru agreed and followed her past the rows of cluttered people who filled up the halls.

Their destination was quickly reached, a location he knew all too well. The Sound girls room. Not bothering to ask the nervous nurse Shikamaru gripped the handle and turned it to find the room barren save for a males body leaning against the now broken window. Entering the room Shikamaru looked around for signs of the redhead as he neared the limp man. It didn't take long to verify he was dead, not pleasantly he might add.

"What in the heck happened here?" He asked back to the nurse with concern as he checked the dead mans injuries.

"W-we don't know, we heard noise...a lot of noise then nothing. When we entered Camilla was gone and..." She hesitated to talk as she looked away from the body.

"And what?" He insisted sensing urgency behind her voice.

"Y-your shinobi friend was found in the room beaten badly, she hasn't woken up yet!" Her fingers gripped tightly into the fabric of her uniform as she bowed apologetic to the stunned chunin.

"...Take me to her."

Ino Yamanaka lay unconscious on her hospital bed. The sounds of steady beeps from machinery and dripping liquid being feed into her veins via IV assured she was in stable health. Contrary to the brutal bruises and swollen face no bones were broken. Her beauty however had been greatly marred. Her long pony tail she was once so proud now was undone into long and unkept fashion. When Shikamaru arrived in the room he could only stare in disbelieving appearance and condition.

"She isn't in any danger sir." The nurse stated consolingly as the chunin knelt down to his teammates side gripping her now frail hand. "Were going to make sure she receives the best medical treatments we can provide for her, its the least we can do for her after she protected and saved so many of our lives."

"...Thank you for that." Shikamaru replied hesitantly as he felt Ino's hand squeeze back. "Ino...just open your eyes for me." He called out softly hoping it would stir a response.

"Its best not to disturb her and leave her to her rest." Reluctantly Shikamaru obeyed the nurses words and withdrew his hand from hers.

"I'm sorry nurse...I watched a very close friend of ours die like this before s-so its hard to see her in the same condition." Shikamaru chocked as he held back his tears as he walked pasted the nurse to exit the room.

"Excuse me sir but you can stay longer if you want." With out turning around he shook his head slightly.

"It'd be troublesome if I stay here when we have a missing person on the loose." Slowly the chunin trudged out of the room with a tightening clenched fist.

One after another, one after another. One after another the shovel would dig deep into the moist muddy ground and uproot another segment of earth. One after another the young girl would take deep uneven breaths despite her severe exhaustion and force the tool to deepen the hole. And one after another she would take forced breaks to rest as her leg ached from kneeling so long supporting her worn out bodies weight. Yet she did not give up on the task she set before her self, she continued as her muscles burned and strained. Slowly she came to a complete stop, not due to fatigue but from sensing the eyes of another upon her.

"Was it you?" The familiar males voice called out with strained breath. Slowly Tayuya rose still looking away from her persecutor, a sad smile spreading slowly at the realization of what he meant.

"Is she still alive?" As her words finished leaving her mouth Tayuya could already feel his presence already upon her. It was only a matter of moments as she felt his fingers deadlock onto her shoulder as the enraged chunin spun her around to face him and his deadly stare.

"Why...why did you attack Ino?!" His fingers gripped tighter into the threshold of pain but with restraint she endured keeping her face even and emotionless.

"Its simple Nara, she attacked me first." He shook her once in anger.

"Don't lie to me, Ino isn't a violent person like you are!" Her blank face shifted into an angry scowl.

"Ohh really rat, well who the fuck do you think gave me this wound?!" Tayuya turned her head sharply to the left exposing the still bleeding gash across her cheek. "Or this one?!" She showed her arm that was sliced into by her own controlled hand.

"How do I know you or that other guy didn't cause that!" Tayuya could feel his grip lessen as his voice slowly became slightly weaker. Disgusted with her rivals weak resolve Tayuya stood upon her working leg straighter as his stance slowly lowered.

"She concealed a kunai in a bouquet of flowers, I told her I didn't want them but she insisted if only to get close enough to plunge it into my throat. When she failed and did this to my face I struck the bitch in her skull." She paused for a moment as if savoring the instance in her mind before adding. "Hard." Shikamaru could only shake his head slowly at the information in disbelief.

"She mentioned you protecting me then the next thing I know I am standing outside the window ready to crash into the gutter like useless trash. She invaded my mind, MY MIND!" Her harsh voice bellowed as the chunin let go of her shoulder as he looked away horrified to what he was hearing.

"But my cursed self wouldn't have that, see I might not give a fuck if I live or die any more but I will be damned if I let a weak ass bitch like her take my life with out a fight!" Her back turned to him as she returned to her digging with heavy breath. "It wasn't enough I had to fight her off but that son of a bitch too, I am surprised your Leaf friends haven't tried to kill me yet."

"..That guy must have been the assassin they talked about at the mansion, he was suppose to kill witnesses who could identify the attackers so that no one could link their affiliation with Kato."

"Did you kill the bastard?" Tayuya asked with venom as she turned giving him a threatening glare.

"He is...dead, they must have double crossed him." He hoped she would believe that.

"...Serves the fucker right." Tayuya continued to her work slightly satisfied to hear of his death leaving the chunin quite.

"...So what happens now rat?" She asked when his silence became far too much of an annoyance to bare.

"...I don't know. Ino might have woken up by now..." He rubbed his brow wiping off small beads of sweat.

"I could have killed her and blamed it on that assassin piece of shit but you would have known the truth eventually and killed me." Tayuya stated as if reading his mind. "Chances are she already identified me as her attacker so I am pretty much fucked now aint I?" Her voice empty and hollow sounding. "I cant look after Chinoisei after all so make sure she finds a good home rat."

"What are you gonna do?" Shikamaru asked a little surprised at how calm she sounded.

Letting go of the shovel Tayuya turned to the chunin with an even face.

"Isn't it obvious yet Nara?" Her voice stern as she keeled before him in front of the grave. His face told her that it wasn't. "I dug this grave to bury either my family members...or myself." Her eyes closed slowly as she knelt before him. "Do what you need to do rat."

Shikamaru stared for a good long minute while his mind muled over the situation. There was a ninety percent chance that the red head was already uncovered by Ino had she woken up. A one hundred percent chance that once she wakes up regardless she will disclose the kunoichi's identity at the swiftest moment. The redhead may be from an opposing enemy village but she was not the typical blood lusting villains Sound normally spawned. Whats more she was asking to die, something Shikamaru was not comfortable with. It wouldn't be the norm where two great opposing ninja do battle with the virtuous one succeeding in the end like he had imagined. It would be...murder.

"...I'm not killing you." His voice spoke up with finality opening her brown eyes revealing an irritated glare.

"What the hell kind of ninja are you Nara?" Tayuya shot back with anger. "I am an enemy, I am your enemy. I participated in transporting one of your so called friends to Orochimaru's side, you lost almost your entire team due to my teammates...hell I even helped Orochimaru kill your Hokage not to mention almost beating your teammate to death so what the fuck is holding you back?!"

"...My honor as a shinobi of the Nara clan and as a man." Tayuya simply stared at him dumbfounded for a few moments unable to respond.

"Your serious aren't you?" Tayuya finally asked as she stood her self up on one wobbling leg as she tried to retain balance. The chunin simply nodded to her, resolve evident in his face.

"I don't understand you Nara. You have every reason to hate me and kill me but you wont over some idiotic outlook on life. You even tried to kill me earlier today so what the hell is different now?!" Tayuya shouted as she rubbed her forehead in frustration.

"...When I tried to kill you before I was consumed with anger at the sight of you. I convinced myself you were the same enemy nin from back then and I sure as hell was going to avenge my teammates no matter what the cost. Heh in a way I was no better then Sasuke I guess." The chunin chuckled for a moment at the thought before continuing."But it wasn't as I imagined it when you were slowly dying beneath me. I didn't feel better, I didn't see their faces cheering me on as I avenged them. All I saw was one of the most troublesome girls I have ever known gasping for life. I broke one of the shinobi's golden rules then...'Don't consider your opponents needs.'"

"It creates an opening of doubt that distracts you from the mission at hand, it gets you killed." Tayuya finished his sentence as she remembered the rhetoric Orochimaru had taught them.

"A ninja must not show emotion, a ninja must not consider their opponents needs and a ninja must not allow personal feelings to cloud their minds or allow their emotions to jeopardize the mission. Those are all the iron codes we live by and time and time again I broke them." A silence set in and drifted between the pair until Shikamaru turned his back to the soaked kunoichi.

"W-where the hell are you going?"

"To the clinic, I already told you I wasn't going to get involved in any troublesome affairs with you that involved taking your life." He waved her off as he continued his pace down the ruined street.

"Nothing is settled yet Nara, I am not taking the risk she already squealed on me!" Turning Shikamaru could see the desperateness evident in her face. "I wont allow myself to have false hope knowing it will be crushed in a matter of moments."

"You wont have too." Ino's voice could be heard saying as she stepped out from behind one of the small ruined houses that marred the once beautiful street.

"Ino, your awake!" Shikamaru exclaimed surprised and happy until he saw the bandages applied to her face. "Ino...I..."

"Its okay Shikamaru, you don't need to say anything, this is what I got for not trusting in your judgment." She gave the redhead a wary stare remembering all she had to endure because of her. "Its enough for me to know you attacked her for the same reasons I did...even if you didn't have the resolve to finish it."

"He never finishes what he starts." Tayuya's cold voice added as she cautiously watched the injured blond walk up to her teammate.

"And either do you apparently." Ino motioned her head showcasing the damage. "You could have killed me at any time, so why didn't you?"

"Who the fuck knows anymore, I decided to try and live a normal life in this hellhole and you walk in and fuck it all up. So who can say why I let you live." With Tayuya's words being said silence fell upon the trio as no one spoke or even made any movements.

Unbeknown to the trio sharp eyes watched over them from a distance.

"Progress report." A shady figure requested as he knelt down next to the camouflaged man atop the over looking roof.

"Marks are situated together Karashi-sama, it appears violence broke out between the two females though it is hard to confidently decipher their lip movements in the current downpour. Are we still set to engage sir?" The mans whispers barely audible over the rainfall.

"Negative, Kato's assassin failed at the clinic. The people know he was an underling, but they don't know why he was there. We shall spin it as a case of a rampant individual taking advantage of the current chaos, the people will be non the wiser. However we must not raise further suspicion by killing two shinobi in this territory now that the fall man is dead." Higato rationalized to his subordinate while also convincing himself.

"Master Danzo-sama will not be pleased with our reports." The subordinate whispered letting his concern known to his leader.

"Of course he wont be, however we may keep our lives if we explain the circumstances of their predicament." His masked face gazed over the distances as he overlook the trio. "Konoha shinobi aiding a suspected Sound nin...yes I believe Danzo-sama will be very interested in that information."


	12. Uneasy Rest

AC:Due to a lot of requests and messages I will continue this story. The Naruto series and myself have distanced given the years so interest was lost, not liking its current course but that doesn't interfere with the plot of this story. I hope those who looked forward to an update will be pleased with this chapter. 13 is halfway done as I type this. As always comment and review, its a type of life support.

The heavy rain that once pounded upon Tenruto's bloody streets slowed into a fine soft mist that blanketed the once peaceful town. Assorted street lights that remained unbroken glowed and flickered casting shadows haphazardly while illuminating the white mist that blanketed all it touched. Tayuya hated the mist with a silent fury. It reminded her too much of her former home in the Land of Waves before the cold cramped dry caverns of Sound became her sanctuary. She hated the bitter numbness of the hypothermia it caused when she was left over exposed to the harsh elements as a child. She hated how it never seemed to leave her be. Still there were a few small features about the surrounding mist she approved, it was very easy to remain unnoticed as she slowly trudged behind the two Leaf shinobi who both had tried to kill her this day. Judging by their awkward silence Tayuya interest in conversation diminished as they neared the hospital entrance as its yellow lights glared out into the misty distance.

"Your back!" A familiar female voice shouted as she waved to the trio in the distance. Her feet splashed lightly into the murky puddles of the streets as she met the trio half way.

"You are the nurse from before." Shikamaru noted with mild surprised as the nurses tired face came into focus in the mist filled air. "Sorry to make you worry."

"Thank Kami you found both of them sir!" The nurse happily expressed her gratitude as she quickly came to the aid of Ino who only brushed her off with a simple "I'm fine."

"You three are positively drenched!" The nursed announced with shock as she was sluggishly motioned by the male shinobi to the wobbling Tayuya behind him.

"She needs to return to her room nurse, she exhausted her self in the rain digging graves." Before Shikamaru had even finished speaking the nurse was already at the redheads side giving her the support of her shoulder as the nurse trudged Tayuya passed both nins. It was in that brief moment Shikamaru caught a glimpse of Tayuya's face...her expression was empty.

"Miss Ino you need to return to your room as well!" The nurse called back with genuine concern as she stopped leading the redhead and looked back at the two nins.

"That's alright nurse, I already decided to head back to Konoha for treatment." Seeing the dejected look on the nurses face Ino quickly added. "Hokage-sama healing will fix my face up in a jiffy."

"Of course, Tsunade is legendary in the medical field after all. I'm sure everyone here will wish you a swift recovery!" The nurse finished with a courteous bow thanking the leaf nin once more for her bravery in the villages time of need.

Watching his partner walk away with out a word to him Shikamaru hastily gave the nurse and redhead a brief nod and quickly followed after his team mate only to be stopped by the image of Karashi appearing in a veil of soggy leafs before him. It took years of ingrained training and his naturally bored appearance to not seem startled by the mans sudden appearance.

"Much appreciation Nara Shikamaru, the search party will be pleased to hear of your success with their return." Karashi slightly bowed once to Shikamaru and before turning his attention to the wounded blond beside him. "We found an unidentified individuals body in one of the clinics rooms, reports suggest you Miss Yamanaka fought and killed the individual, is that correct?"

Ino blinked in sudden surprise remembering not long after she had regain consciousness that a second body was found in the room where she failed to kill the redhead earlier. Remembering the promise she made to Shikamaru she swallowed the bitter bile that rested in her throat as she lied for him.

"Y-yes sir he attacked me, I'm not sure the reason he did though." Ino could only hope the mist filled air covered any doubt that existed on her facial features.

"I see, and you miss Takahashi Camilla?" His porcelain mask resting perfectly on his shoulder as he turned back to face the limping redhead who only stared at him expressionlessly. "Why did you leave?" His voice grew much sterner given her silence.

Tayuya considered her words carefully before finally responding. "I wanted to die."

"Camilla your not serious are you?!" The nurse shrieked with surprise as she took hold of the redheads shoulders and tried to look her in the eyes. Those stern eyes however stared directly into the eye holes of the masked shinobi before her.

"Why would you want to die?" Karashi stressed as he met her hazle eyes.

"My family is dead, our house is destroyed and everywhere I go someone is trying to kill me!" Tayuya shouted as if to the world and not just the questioning shinobi before her. "I wanted to die by my families home but that's just not good enough for some people?" Her eyes shifted to the black hair chunin catching his gaze.

"I see." Responded Karashi after contemplating her words carefully. "You have my sympathies, Shikamaru it seems you were correct with wanting to watch over your charges mental stability." The chunin said nothing. "I will be over seeing the transport of injured civilians back to Konoha, its good knowing then that I am leaving the village in both your reliable care."

"I would like to volunteer my services to the transport sir, I have been doing extensive study into medical jutsus so I should be of some help." Ino pleaded desperately.

"Your assistance will be much appreciated. I am sure, will you be joining her as well Nara?" Karashi asked as he turned his masked face over to the chunin.

"No, I will stay and aid the relief effort unless ordered other wise." Shikamaru kept his composure as he felt the Anbu's eyes rest upon him.

"...So be it, I will be vacating the area myself shortly. I would leave you in charge under normal circumstances Nara however with your situation with shinobi ranks you are unfit for the task given your ability. That task now falls to my subordinates."

Shikmaru stood taken aback, he had almost forgotten the fifth Hokage revoked his rank of chunin, not that he fought back at all to maintain it. Most shinobi were respectful and considerate about his mark of shame, Karashi obviously was not. Such a statement seemed completely unnecessary to the young genius given the politeness Karashi displayed early. Did the Anbu truly look upon the former chunin with contempt and piece together that he may be the intruder in the attic earlier this day? Or was he being paranoid? Regardless he gave the Anbu captain no response.

Karashi motioned his right arm towards Ino pointing down the street. "Please this way, the medical squad is by the front entrance of town." Neither his former teammate Ino nor the Anbu captain gave him another look.

Begrudgingly Shikamaru allowed Ino to leave in the traitorous Anbu's care, none of his excuses for separating the two would have convinced Ino to stay and would only incriminate himself further if Karashi truly did suspect him as being a spy. Steeling himself as much as he could in the frigid mist Shikamaru placed his faith in the Konoha shinobi that would be escorting Ino as well as the injured civilians. He would soon follow them back to Konoha but he had one last set of inquiries for the redhead before she inevitably disappeared into the darkness leaving this town far behind.

Shikamaru set himself back to the former Sound nins new room ignoring most of his surroundings as almost everyone was either recuperating or tending to someones wounds. He already received the new room number from one of the distraught clerks, on his way he noted the off limit signs near her former residence. As he neared the door to the redheads room he could hear her voice conversing with the same nurse who brought her in earlier. It was surprising to hear the foul mouthed girl talk kindly to another human being.

"Please if there is anything else you may need do not fret to call on me okay Camilla, your grandparents would never forgive me if you died in the rain due to my negligence...kami rest their souls."

"Kami rest their souls." Was the redheads only reply.

"Please Camilla, keep yourself warm tonight. Those are the only blankets the hospital can spare at the moment and we need all the hot water to sterilize our tools but I promise to arrange for you to be high on the list for a hot shower in the morning."

"T-thank you again Fuuka, really." Tayuya waved the nurse off before pulling the blankets up over her self to fend off the cold. "I just need some rest."

"Okay but there was something I wanted to talk to you about." Fuuka waited for some sort of reply then continued when she feared one would not come. "Did you really want to die earlier?"

"Its my life." Tayuya answered evenly not trying to offend the nurse outright.

"Your grandparents wouldn't want that." Fuuka reasoned.

"They also didn't want to die today and I didn't want to be a cripple, things we don't want happen." Tayuya countered calmly letting the nurse soak in the truth before continuing. "You don't have to worry though, I wont do anything reckless."

"That's umm comforting to hear Camilla, I will see you in the morning for your shower as well as fresh bandages for your leg." Feeling the tension in the small hospital room Fuuka gave her patient her space nearly bumping into the eavesdropping Nara out side.

"Ohh heavens forgive me, I should have looked where I was going sir." Fuuka apologized while bowing repeatedly to the chunin.

"Its okay really, you don't have to bow every three seconds to me." Shikamaru responded while scratching the back of his pony tail.

"B-but it was my fault and your a shinobi who saved our lives and, ohh I am just babbling on again while you want to visit Camilla aren't I?" her face flushed a little as she finished speaking.

"First off we were taught that we are equals to everyone else even if we are shinobi despite what some people might say, secondly yeah I wanted to see how that troublesome girl was getting along."

"Ohh well she is doing fine now, she is just very drained after today's dreadful ordeal," Shikamaru noticed the nurses nervousness slowly being replaced with the medical professionalism he had come to know from all practitioners in the field. "You can visit her if she is still awake but I would have to insist against keeping her up." The nurse paused while considering her words carefully before continuing. "Camilla has been through a lot with her grandparents death, she may snap at you."

"I'm used to it." Shikamaru simply said with a knowing laugh.

"Ohh your very kind to her sir." The nurse replied suddenly catching Shikamaru off guard. "How do you mean?"

"Ohh well, how can I explain..." Fuuka said aloud to her self and she fought the red blush that was sure to appear on her face. "Camilla doesn't really socialize well so the attention of a handsome young man saving her life and repeatedly checking up on her will do her some good."

Shikamaru blinked twice to this. "Handsome?

"Ohh my I ahh really must be going now, more patients to tend to." Fuuka's cheeks burned blood red at her own foolish words as she avoided eye contact with the chunin and rushed towards the nearest exit leaving the black haired teen to his bewilderment.

"I will never understand women." He sighed once before open the redheads room and entering.

Tayuya didn't react as he entered, she stayed staring out the window still clenching her blankets close for warmth. She felt her former enemy pull a chair next to her and grumble to himself as if to break the ice and start a conversation. After a full minute of silence she finally turned to him.

"What does the handsome man want now?" Tayuya asked not trying to hide the mock in her tone.

"You've got good ears." Shikamaru simply replied.

"I'm a shinobi at heart." Tayuya replied ruefully remembering her former station. "But your not here to talk about the good old days I take it rat?"

"In a manner of speaking I am, there's something I have been meaning to ask you for awhile now." Shikamaru began calmly while trying to gauge her mood. She glared at him with the same level of contempt he always knew her for.

"I obviously have nothing better I could be doing than answering your pointless questions in the middle of the night now would I?" She let her sarcasm sink into the chunin for a moment. "Speak your peace then get the fuck out."

Shikamaru nodded simply to her request before getting straight to the point. "Is there any hope to save Sasuke?"

To Tayuya's surprise she hadn't expected that question. Secret Sound plans, ways to attack or strategic base locations sure but the Uchiha fagots well being? She erupted in laughter despite her wounds and exhaustion.

Shikamaru didn't know why at first but the redheads amusement of the situation brought him to sudden anger. His friends had died for Sasuke.

"There's no hope for your Sasuke-kun." Tayuya managed to say with a straight face as she forced her laughter to a stop. "He left willingly to Orochimaru's side."

"Just because he might have left willingly doesn't mean there is no hope for him to return." Shikamaru reasoned more to himself than the redhead.

"Its because he left willingly that there is no hope for him." She said in a matter of fact way as if explaining to a child.

"Than an explanation is in order because I'm just not understanding."

"Baka, there are three kinds of people that are under Orochimaru with in Sound. People who seek him out for power or personal gain, people he recruits personally and people with no other options." Tayuya reasoned calmly as she reflected on the tiers of subordinates.

"Which were you?" Shikamaru pressed while slightly intrigued.

"...Orochimaru convinced me to join Sound as a child, I had no grand delusions of power unlike your Sasuke-kun. Survival was all that was important to me at the time."

"Your saying Sasuke sought him out for personal gain?"

"Of course, your Hokage never revealed why he left did she?" The blank stare he gave her was all the proof Tayuya needed to continue. "Patricide, genocide. The Uchiha clan massacre in case you lived in a sheltered hole in the ground all your life. The fucker wants revenge against Uchiha Itachi, something your village wasn't helping him achieve outright, Orochimaru has a vendetta against the elder Uchiha so its in both their ends to aid one another."

Shikamaru vaguely remembered the Uchiha massacre. It wasn't something that was really talked about by teachers. It was more of a cautionary tale about bloodline families and how villages need to play a more active role to keep their abilities in check. He simply couldn't see such a thing happening to his clan.

"Revenge is a strong motivator, it made a pussy like you try to kill me after all. Even if you caught Sasuke that day he would still want revenge and he would have tried to escape again. Orochimaru would have been more than happy to supply the bodies for him to ride over back to base." Tayuya finished bitterly knocking the young Nara from his inward thoughts. He however found he had nothing to say in regards to his and her lost comrades at the moment.

"Do you still want revenge?" Shikamaru changed the subject causing the redheads to blink in surprise.

"Against who?" Tayuya specified carefully as to not reveal her shit list prematurely.

"For this village, your family." Shikamaru paused before adding. "Against me and that troublesome Sand kunoichi?"

"If I wanted you dead, you would be dead understand?" Tayuya answered with a mirthless grin. "As for that Suna bitch and the fuckers who attacked today, I'm no longer in any condition to exact revenge." With that Tayuya broke eye contact and set her hazel eyes to the coming dawn forming on the horizon. "Its late Nara so just leave me the fuck be understand?"

Taking in her sudden sullen mood change Shikamaru removed himself from his chair and soundlessly placed it next to the entrance of the room before stopping at the door frame. "Its a drag but can I sleep here for now?" Shikamaru asked in a lazy tone causing Tayuya's eyes to immediately widen and stare at the chunin with incredulous shock.

"The fuck did you just say?!" Tayuya demanded as she fought back the slight blush from her cheeks at the implication of sharing her bed.

"With all that happened it'd be pretty messed up to look around for a room to sleep in given the attack. I wont take lodging from people who need in more than me so why not save a lot of time and energy and just sleep here...on the floor." Shikamaru added seeing the odd look the young redhead was giving him.

Despite her self Tayuya couldn't find an argument to debunk the chunins reasoning that wasn't childish and full of curse words. She did however remember her threat earlier to the chunin. "You'd sleep here even though I threatened that id kill you when ever I wanted?"

"You said before you would wake me up before you killed me right?" Shikamaru replied in his usual lazy tone causing the redheads cheeks to redden in anger.

"Do what ever the fuck you want, just don't expect a pillow jack ass." With that Tayuya threw the blankets over her face and turned over in heated furry at the idea of him sharing a room with her. Exhaustion however did not leave her much time to dwell on it as she fell asleep with in minutes.

Shikamaru merely sprawled himself out on the wooden floor resting both arms behind his head as he stared up into the ceiling contemplating the days events. He didn't like the idea but he was sure that for both him and the loud redhead to share company a little longer it would prevent both of them from giving into their more self destructive emotions. Uneasy sleep soon took him over as well.

Not too far out side Tenruto's shattered walls the Konoha medical squad were making good time rushing the wounded gracefully through the tree branches. The medic nins pace with each other kept perfect balance to each stretcher as seasoned nins applied healing jutsu to their patents. Ino kept pace with one of the lagging teams. They lagged only due to her inability to keep pace and heal properly at the same time. Karashi led the pact clearing the path through the mist. He raised his left hand and quickly made silent symbols to his teammates that he would be scouting ahead for dangers. He heard their muffled "Hai" in response to the signals and blazed a path further into the mist leaving the medical team far behind.

Once he felt he was a safe distance away from eavesdroppers Karashi activated a hidden mic from beneath his mask. It clicked softly in his ear and washed over with static momentarily before the white noise was replaced by an aged voice full of authority.

"Karashi, I take it something important happened for you to be reaching me in such a risky manner." The voice reminded the Anbu captain clearly of the dangers involved with this open communication.

"Events in Tenruto unfolded differently then we had planned lord Danzo." Karashi stated simply allowing his master to soak in the gravity of the situation.

"Explain."

"My lord the Crimson Skulls completed their assignment as they were instructed to by Tenruto's mayor. However Konoha shinobi Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino were present and aided the townspeople. No Konoha shinobi were supposed to be assigned to any nearby routes as far as we were informed." Karashi listened intently to the growing silence in his ear piece as Danzo reflected on this information.

"Blasted Tsunade, she isn't doing her duties of recording requests to leave the village." Danzo cursed her aloud to his subordinate. "The result of them being there?" Danzo demanded suddenly fearing the worst.

"They repelled the Crimson Skulls forces, superficial casualties on their side from what information of the events we have gathered. No Konoha casualties, however we confirmed Dokumaru as trying to kill Nara Shikamaru, Karasu stayed his hand from the report my lord." Karashi again listened to the silence and static that followed in Danzo's deep thought.

"...And the negotiations?"

"Negotiations were completed however we were forced to kill the mayor and his bodyguards as I realized our conversation was being overheard by a third party...I believe Nara Shikamaru to be this third party sir." Karashi remained silent upon hearing the disapproving huff of his lords voice.

"...Are you positive of this Karashi?" Danzo demanded loudly over the ever present static. "My standing with the Nara clan is already unstable as it is, I would rather not throw in an assassination against one of their members if there is no need."

"I have not confronted him directly, I awaited your acknowledgment of the situation before acting. Based on reports gathered he likely is the eavesdropper, on top of that I believe he has connections with Sound my lord."

"...Sound?" Replied Danzo with growing interest.

"Yes my lord, we believe a resident of this village Camilla Takahashi to be Tayuya of the Sound Four. Though she was listed as KIA this girl matches the description perfectly from all the reports."

This time Karashi met an extended period of silence over his ear piece. He feared the line had disconnected until he could make out a faint laugh from the weathered strategist. It wasn't like the head of Root to find such news amusing.

"...I believe Karashi that you should explain everything from the beginning."


End file.
